Endless
by qpritchie1
Summary: Eric wanted more than to just stick his head in the sand with all of these weird things going on in Sunnydale. What he doesn't expect is for all of his suspicions to be true. MM SLASH! Eventual Xander/OMC, Angel/OMC, Riley/OMC and Spike/OMC RxR!
1. Chapter I: I've Got A Hunch

**Buffy story! Yay! I've been in love with all things Buffy for a rather long time now. About four and a half years ago, I bought the Collector's Edition of the entire series, costing me $200. It was worth it! :D**

**And surprise, surprise...it's m/m! Lots of m/m, basically. In fact, I will pretty much pair a LOT of guys with my OC...because let's face it; all major Buffy guys were rather hot/sexy/adorable/cuddly. :3 In fact, the only main pairings I won't go with would be Giles/OMC and Oz/OMC. So that leaves Xander/OMC, Angel/OMC, Riley/OMC, and Spike/OMC, not necessarily in that order...so...yeah...But don't worry! Buffy will be find somebody for all you Buffy lovers.**

**Now, as for my other stories; don't worry! I'm working on every single next installment for all of my stories that haven't been dubbed and discontinued.**

**Okay, more information on this story. You've been through the pairings, so let's so over the story summary, eh?**

**Eric was just a normal kid in a very strange town. Everything that happened here seemed to be 'out of the norm.' But that didn't stop Eric from attempting to have the most normal existence since he already felt out of it for being gay. He had normal friends and a normal time in high school. He wasn't popular, but not really unpopular, either. He was sitting somewhere in the middle like most of the Sunnydale High population. But unlike the rest of the high school, he wanted to find out why all of the strange things kept happening and ends up getting sucked into an entire world he didn't think was even possible.**

**Disclaimer: Hi. Do I seem like I could be Joss Whedon? No? That's because I'm not, so don't assume I own any part of Buffy The Vampire Slayer...but I would love to. Joss Whedon...call me and we can work something out! :D**

**This takes place during the pilot. Yay! BTW Who knew that such a campy movie would turn into something so spectacular? Okay...sorry lol. MOVING ON!**

**I can honestly say that I've never worked so hard on a story before, what with all of the research and episode viewing I had to do. It was worth it, though. I always have fun writing my stories, and I hope you guys have fun reading them! :D**

**B U F F Y**

Maybe one of these days, I'll be able to have a normal day in this hellhole. And no, I'm not talking about some pop quiz in a class I never do well in, or even having a person of the female persuasion ask me out. No, it's those days that have people suddenly missing, only leaving a trail of slime leading to the kitchen sink, or even somebody's body found near a cemetery with two puncture wounds in their neck. Yeah, it's rather unreal in this town.

I started to veer more and more away from my usual friends because all they talked about were the normal things in life, but I wasn't one to just ignore whatever happens around me. Unlike them, instead of talking about music or clothes, I wanted to talk about last week's freaky murder that left the victim with a pentagram carved into their forehead. I decided I wasn't going to stick my head in the sand any longer. This is a new year, my sophomore year to be exact, so that means that it's time to finally make some sense of this place. I was going to dedicate my time to researching some of the weird things that went on here.

After greeting my 'friends,' I saw somebody I didn't recognize. And trust me, in such a small town, it was hard not to recognize somebody. She had golden locks of hair with thin bangs hanging across her forehead. She was wearing a white top with a burgundy colored skirt and black boots that stopped a few inches below her knees. The mystery girl looked around in, what seemed like, a nervous gaze. Her emerald eyes only held that emotion, and it didn't seem like a good kind of nervous either. Everybody seemed to stop and glance at her, a lot of them stopping to whisper about 'the new girl' I wasn't gonna lie, though; she is really attractive. I mean, I'm not into girls, but I'm sure that if I were straight, I'd be running into a rail like Xander Harris did not moments later.

Xander. His name always kind of sent emotion coursing through me. I've had a crush on Xander Harris for many years, but that didn't change the fact that he was one hundred percent into the female anatomy. And him staring at Buffy like that only proved it more so.

Don't feel bad, though. I've gotten used to it. He was just somebody I could never have, but I accepted that some time in middle school. Sure, we chatted a little bit, but that was all.

I guess it kind of started in 1st grade. I was sitting there, minding my own business, and this later-to-be jock, Larry Blaisdell, walked up to me and stole my cookies and juice and proceeded to kick sand in my face. As I spat the grainy unpleasantness out of my mouth, I could feel the tears swelling up behind my eyes, but I couldn't let them spill. Everybody was watching and I couldn't let the entire class see me.

That was when Xander ran up to me. "Here, you wanna share?" he asked me with such kindness and innocence. I remember smiling brightly before nodding. After we were done, though, he laughed it off and went back to his redhead friend, Willow Rosenberg.

They contrasted a little bit, though. Xander had dark chestnut colored hair, fair skin, and chocolate brown orbs, where as Willow had bright orange hair with equally bright eyes and somewhat of a pale complexion.

Over the years, they gained a new friend into their duo; Jesse. And as I walked into the school, I could see them conversing with each other, even as I was lost in thought. Jesse McNally was a little tanner than Xander, with a bit more curliness to his hair. He was a little bit slimmer than Xander, too.

I'm sorry. I'm comparing everything to Xander, you guys must think I belong in a mental institution somewhere with my hands wrapped up in a jacket that only opens up from the back. I promise you that I'm not, though. I've grown comfortably around him, and liking him was just another factor in my life. It was no big deal, nor did it need any sort of acknowledgment. It was just there, and I've already dealt with that.

As I walked down the hall, I saw that the new girl had entered Principal Flutie's office. More than likely, she was going to be given a rundown of how the school worked. But that didn't stop me on my way to the school's library to start on my research.

I entered through the double doors and found a new librarian than from last year. Last year, it was some crotchety old woman with pale brown hair and what seemed like a bunch of one-piece outfits when really, it was just a shirt that matched her pants...completely. It was like a tracksuit for the lazy.

This one, however, was a man. He wore glasses on the tip of his nose as he went through some of the boxes of books he had. He looked up and smiled pleasantly.

"Hello, there." And apparently, he was also British. "I'm Mr. Giles, your new...librarian." he greeted as he continued to stand behind the tiny counter. I walked up to the counter and introduced myself.

"Hi, I'm Eric Lobes." I said with a polite grin as I readjusted the only strap from my backpack I used and glanced over at one of the books.

The cover was old with many dust particles resting upon it. The brown leather casing was well-preserved, though. No tears in the binding or anything like that. That's when I noticed the title to the book. "Vampyr." It was clasped together, unable to open. He noticed my gaze and quickly hid the book under the counter.

"Can I help you with something?" His attempt at changing the subject didn't really do much for me. I kept it on the same track, or at least attempted to.

"Did that...say 'vampire?' Is that...available...you know, to check out, possibly?" I don't know if it was his status as the new librarian or just the subject at hand, but he seemed intrigued.

"Do you know a Ms. Buffy Summers, perhaps?" Mr. Giles asked cautiously. It seemed he was holding something back, but I didn't call him on it.

"No, I don't. Sorry. Oh, wait. Is that that new girl?" I asked curiously, my head slightly tilting to the side in a questioning manner.

"Umm...why do you want to check out this book?" He changed the subject quickly, making me wonder why he did so. I scratched the back of my head, the strands of dark brown hair moving along my fingers. He fidgeted a little at his question, nervously adjusting his glasses.

"If you lived here, you might know for yourself." Would I really get into my whole 'evil things are real' rant with the school librarian? The questioning look he gave me told me that yes, I would.

I glanced over at the newspaper stand near the entryway of the library. I grabbed the most recent issue of the Sunnydale Press they had and looked for a good article. I saw one and pulled a red felt marker out of my backpack, circling the title and picture of the article.

"Look. 'Local Boys Still Missing.' Says here that they were playing in the park around the time the sun went down. One of the boys friends was found in that park with two small holes in his neck and drained of his blood." I looked up at him and noticed he was unfazed by it.

"Yes, well that could be an animal. A, umm, coyote, or possibly a wo-"

"A wolf? Yeah, that's what the police said. The thing is, there wasn't any trace of scratches or footprints that would indicate as such." I went on, putting the marker back into my backpack having already read over the article once before.

"Yes, well that's quite a conspiracy theory you have there..." He began adjusting his glasses again. "But, this book isn't allowed to be checked out. It's part of a personal collection." Mr. Giles went to the back, which I figured to be his own work space. For a second, I contemplated over just grabbing the book from behind the counter, but that was too unethical for me.

"Well, I guess if you're not going to let me see it, can you point me in the direction of some sort of mythical section?" I asked politely even though I was a little irritated at the fact that he avoided the entire conversation we just had. He peeked out of the back and pointed toward the left side of the library.

"Fantasy and fiction are over in that corner." Fiction? Fine, I guess it'll have to do. I sighed and slowly dragged my feet up the steps of the small section and proceeded to look through all of the titles rapidly. It was nothing but Anne Rice and Stephen King novels. So much for researching via literature. I guess I could use my free period to come back during my free period after my math class. I sighed heavily and went on my way to class as the bell rang.

**B U F F Y**

After a dreary assignment of the Pythagorean theorem, I slumped my way out of my chair and headed straight for the library, only to be stopped the new girl exiting her class with one Cordelia Chase.

How do I put this lightly? Cordelia is...well, she's a bitch. In fact, she's an uber bitch. Sometimes, I think that she's some sort of evil entity concocted by Lucifer's third grandson or something. But no, she's just a normal teen prom queen who thinks she's above everybody else in the world. I walked up in time to hear her scoff softly.

"Ugh, I would kill to live in L.A. That close to that many shoes." The girl just laughed along. Great; another recruit to Cordelia's army of overbearingly materialistic teeny-boppers who have no clue on what goes on in the world around them. Poor Xander will be so disappointed to find out that the new girl will be forbidden to be seen with him by said conceited creature.

See, Xander wasn't exactly high up on the social ladder. Let's face it; he was no Harmony Kendall, another one of Cordelia's followers. But, that didn't matter to him, which I found to be a very redeeming quality about him.

As I walked down the hall, I saw a certain redhead walking along. She had on a pale green flannel dress that stopped just below her knees, which had white leggings to cover them up. There was an eggshell colored shirt underneath her dress, the collar folded it to just barely brush against the black straps of her navy blue backpack. No, she didn't have the best fashion sense, but she was probably the sweetest girl I've ever met. I mean, even though half of the school knew she was practically in love with Xander, and the other half assumed they were dating already, I wasn't going to let that stop me from gaining a good friend. She was soft spoken and rather selfless, always with a kind word and support, no matter what the situation might be. No wonder her and Xander were such good friends.

She smiled at me kindly before waving as she made her way to the water fountain.

I walked into the library for the second time that day and glanced over at the counter. I grinned lightly at the newspaper article that still sat atop it from this morning. Mr. Giles was nowhere to be found, so I helped myself to a computer in the back of the school, not really wanting people to know exactly what I was doing. I turned it on and set my bag aside. I heard a tiny bit of shuffling from a few feet behind me and decided to peek through the bookshelf to see who it was.

To my surprise, it was Xander. I don't think I've ever seen him set foot inside a library, let alone reading in one. That's when I realized that he was looking at a textbook. He must be getting one for his classes, which made sense. Sure, he didn't study too hard, but he didn't really fail either. He glanced up, probably feeling my gaze, and smiled lightly. He waved kindly at me and I returned it with full enthusiasm. Or at least enough enthusiasm to still be able to look normal.

At that point, I heard the door to the library slowly squeak open. "Hello?" The voice was definitely female and one I didn't seem to recognize. My mind automatically flashed to the new girl. Both Xander and I turned our heads in the direction of the foreign noise. It seems we both knew she was looking for Mr. Giles and went back to whatever we were doing. "Is anybody here?" she continued, her voice slow and cautious.

A few moments later, I heard her let out a tiny gasp. She sighed with relief before replying to whatever made her jump. "Anybody's here." I grinned at that. If this was the new girl, I liked her sense of humor. I looked over and it seemed like Xander was thinking the same thing because he had a tiny smirk in place of where his usual goofy grin was. Some locks of his hair covered parts of his eye, so I couldn't tell if he seemed to be unintentionally eavesdropping due to the acoustics in this library, like me, or if he was grinning at something he was reading.

"Can I help you?" a very British voice proceeded to answer her. Yup, she found Mr. Giles. Well , that, or there was some other British man with a very proper way of speaking walking around this part of California.

"I was looking for some, well, books. I-I'm new." Both Xander and I perked up at this. It was the new girl after all. Xander continued to face toward the entrance for a little bit before placing one of the textbooks back and picking up another.

"Ms. Summers?" That's right, her name is Buffy. Buffy Summers.

"Good...call...Guess I'm the only new kid, huh?" she said a tad bit comically. Well, she'd be right. She was big news in such a tiny school. It was all anybody talked about last period and I'm guessing the discussion will still be going on for quite some time.

"I'm Mr. Giles...the librarian-" Did he always say it like that? "I was told you were coming." I'm guessing Principal Flutie already mentioned her to him, which is different, but not really abnormal of Flutie. He always had a tendency to talk too much, leading to some information getting out. That's how the Seniors last year protested against the senior trip to be at some crappy carnival a few towns over. I heard all they had was a broken down Ferris wheel and a cotton candy stand.

"Great...so, I'm gonna need perspectives on 20th century-" she was stopped mid-sentence by the very British librarian.

"I know what you're after." It was followed by a loud bang of a book's weight being placed on the counter, the noise only intensified by the vibrato within the room. Wow, he's a pretty good librarian if he knew exactly what books she needed. Well done, Sunnydale school district.

After a long pause, Buffy responded. "That's not what I'm looking for..." Whoops, never mind Sunnydale, you still suck...

"You sure?" It's kind of obvious that, yes, she's sure. I laughed a little bit at that.

"I'm way sure." See, Mr. Giles? Told you.

"Oh. My mistake." Yes, Mr. Giles...yes. "So what is it you-" That was when the door squeaked a little bit. She must have left, and in a hurry if the librarian was still talking to her. Xander and I looked at each other and we both smiled briefly before returning to what we were doing.

**B U F F Y**

Just when I was finally getting onto something, the bell rang. I cursed to myself and saved it as a bookmark. I'll see if I can come back later during lunch.

The rest of the time was all classes I didn't pay much attention in. My mind kept wondering back to that book and some of the research I did. I ended up using a search engine for random things I found through the town's newspaper, but only found the specific articles on their website. I thought back to the book that Mr. Giles had and typed it in. Finally, I was getting much more research leaning more toward what really goes on. And that's when the bell rang.

Finally, I made it to lunch. By that time, I had heard about a dead body found in one of the lockers in the girls' locker room. I didn't get the name, but I still felt bad for the guy. There were, apparently, some puncture wounds (big surprise). I felt bad for his family and friends who had to deal with that, probably burying themselves deeper into convincing themselves everything was normal.

As I passed from one class to the library, I came upon Buffy talking to Xander, Willow, Jesse, and Cordelia, which is weird because Cordelia wouldn't be caught dead having them in her presence, let alone have a conversation with them. That's when I saw Buffy get up in a rushed manner to leave her new...friends? Acquaintances? Buddies? What were they?

Not too long after, I saw Xander getting up and going in my direction. I grinned widely as he continued only to be subjected to rejection as he walked past me and entered the library. Yeah, that felt good...

Once again, I entered the library taking my previous spot in the back of the library. I noticed Mr. Giles putting away some books, but he didn't notice me. Nor did he notice Xander on the other side of the library. I decided not to really get any attention and just continue my research. After a few minutes of looking up random paranormal entities that Sunnydale might have come across.

That's when I heard Buffy's voice yell, "Okay! What's the sitch?" It made me jump since I was so enthralled by what I was reading about some sort of phantom thing.

"Sorry?" Mr. Giles asked as he peaked from behind the bookcase he was currently at and toward the direction of the loud disturbance.

"You heard about the dead guy, right? The dead guy in the locker?" The next minute was a blur of random phrases that could only be described as paranormal. 'Vampire slayers,' and 'demons.' It was finally coming together that I wasn't over-analyzing everything just because I was bored. That brought somewhat of a small smile to my face. But still, it was somewhat unsettling to finally get confirmation from people around me that everybody's nightmares were walking around and existing right here in a little town in California. I looked over at Xander incredulously and he looked more freaked out than I did. But let's face it, I've realized it a long time ago that something was going on and had enough time to not only process, but believe in it all. Xander, on the other hand, must just be hearing about all of this now. He was staring at the bookshelf like it was the only sense of sanity he had left.

After a long period of silence and the squeaking of the double doors of the library, Xander made a movement toward the front of the library. "...What?" was all he could exclaim as he held onto his book in hand. Then, he looked behind him and at me. "Did you...?"

"Y-Ye-...I think so..." I answered, knowing he was asking me if I heard all of that as he gestured toward where the two people were standing not too long ago talking about werewolves and succubi and vampires...all of that jolly lovey dovey that is evil.

After a long look of confusion shared between the two of us, the bell rang.

"Do you still have the same number you did last year?" he asked me bluntly. I was taken aback a bit but didn't late it show.

"Yeah, why?" My confusion, however, leaked through to the surface more so than it had from earlier.

"I think we need to meet Buffy at The Bronze. I heard from somebody that Cordelia invited her tonight." The Bronze was this trendy club where anybody of any age could go to and have fun. Of course, people under 21 had to drink Sprite and Kool-Aid while older ones got beer and cocktails. Other than that, it was pretty fun. I've been there a couple of times and they usually have live bands playing.

"Yeah, that sounds good. Should we tell your friends?" Of course, I referred to Willow and Jesse, a brief image of the two people flashing in my mind.

"Even if we told them, I doubt we would believe them. But I'm going to invite Willow and Jesse, anyways. If this was all just a big misunderstanding we can still have a night out. Music, lights, non-alcoholic beverages...music..." I knew him well enough to know that when he was uncomfortable, he jokes around to cover up the mood with some sort of comical tone.

At first, I didn't really want to go out tonight, but Xander invited me, of all people. Yes, we needed to talk to Buffy, but why not consequently have fun tonight?

"Sure." I said, my insides lit with fireworks and...clowns? What else is considered happy? Maybe puppies. Sure, why not? My insides were lit with fireworks and pup...wait, I don't want to light puppies on fire!

"Cool." Xander said, still somewhat frantic of the subject he was previously educated in. It threw me out of my disturbing thoughts of puppies, though, so that was good. "I'll call your number when I'm on my way to pick you up." I nodded and he was on his way out the door with one last acknowledgment of said nod.

I linked myself the website I found, deciding to show it to Xander when he comes over.

Maybe I'll make some new friends tonight.

**B U F F Y**

It was close to 8:00 when I got the phone call from Xander. He was only a few minutes away, so the walk was fairly short.

I got dressed in an dark crimson sweater with some bleached jeans I bought not too long ago and some shoes I found in the back of my father's old closet. I winced internally at the use of thinking 'my father's old closet.' It still hurt to think about him, but that was an entirely different thing at hand.

Anyways, I got dressed and did my hair like I like it; sort of messy looking but it wasn't long enough to look messy. In fact, it looked rather good, if I do say so myself. I stared at my reflection in the mirror, my hazel eyes staring back at me. My eyes held so much more emotion than I usually emit. It wasn't that I was closed up, it's just that I didn't really talk to my friends much outside of school. I didn't really have many to depend on, which is probably why the only person I've shared my theories about this cursed town was Mr. Giles. It felt good to discuss with somebody instead of just letting it dwell in my head, I didn't care that he thought I was crazy. Then again, he must not have considering that he basically confirmed my every suspicion of Sunnydale with his little chat with Buffy.

I flattened out my sweater and proceeded over to my computer. I opened up the website and kept it there for when Xander arrived.

Not moments after I sat down at the computer desk did Xander ring the doorbell. Of course, I was the one to get it since my mom was working until midnight again. My mom, Lisa, had two jobs to keep the roof over our heads. I felt bad that I haven't found a job yet to help out, but absolutely nobody seemed to be hiring. It was that whole 'you need experience to get a job and a job to get experience' kind of thing. So, instead, I make it easier on her and clean the house and cook dinner and whatnot so that when she gets home, she can just relax and have a nice meal. She didn't need nor deserve any extra burdens.

I opened the door and saw Xander smirking at me. "Hey Er! Haven't been here in a while. What was it; 8th grade? Remember? When we had that project together?"

Of course I do, Xander. That's the day I realized that you and I would never happen.

"Mm, barely." I answered jokingly, inviting him in by opening the door just enough to enter. "Come on, I gotta show you something." I led him through the hallway and into my room. It was tiny, but quaint. It was bright with a striped bedspread sprawled out lazily across the mattress. There was a wooden nightstand right next to it, which was where my alarm clock and nothing else sat on top of it. And across from my bed was my closet and my computer desk.

"I was doing some research in the library and I came across some stuff," I scrolled down the page and found the spot that was most important and read it out loud. "The mouth of Hell, or Hellmouth, is a place of increased supernatural energies. This is the area where barriers between dimensions are weak." I glanced over at Xander and he just looked incredulously at the computer screen. He didn't say anything or gave any sign to stop, so I just continued. "The Hellmouth has a focal point, which serves as a portal between earth and Hell. The Hellmouth attracts demons and other supernatural creatures and becomes a 'hot spot' for supernatural activity." The paragraph ended there, so I stopped reading the words off of the screen.

I looked at Xander for any sort of confirmation that he understood, if not, got what I was saying. He just had a dumbfounded look on his face as he took a seat on my bed.

"So...life sucks for normal people but this entire town gets to deal with 'demons' too?" He added air quotations around the word, probably his only way of keeping somewhat sane at what he just learned. I nodded, my arms now across my chest. "...Fun..."

"Alright, we should probably go. Don't want to miss Buffy, or Willow and Jesse for that matter...buuut...mostly Buffy..." I babbled a little. It's what happens when I'm around Xander, or a guy a liked. Sadly for me, they were the same people, so I didn't know how to differentiate the two.

**B U F F Y**

"So, how's life?" Xander asked as we walked along the side of the road leading up to the club."Anything exciting happen since the last time we hung out? No dancing bear or a gang of circus freaks cleaning up the city or anything like that? Ooh, or maybe there was a gang of circus freaks with a pet dancing bear. Bet you didn't think about that, did ya?" He joked. He did that a lot, and I found all of them adorable, even if they were some of the longest jokes I've ever witnessed. I laughed enthusiastically as we continued step-by-step toward our destination.

"No, none of that. Although, I did see a monkey with a tiny red Russian cap. You know with the tassel and everything?" I responded eagerly to his joke with something equally in the goodness of fun, gesturing toward the top of my head. "Yeah, that was nice."

"Ooh, ooh, did he have those little cymbals that he can clap with?" Xander asked, playing along. I was happy that my jokes went over well with him, it made me grin that much wider.

"It did, it did." I continued, smiling the entire time. "Turns out, though, that it was fake. Can't really tell the difference when you're peering into a toy shop from across the street."

"Damn it. Thought maybe we could hire it for parties or something." I laughed heartily at that, my hands nervously grabbing at nothing particular inside the pockets of my jeans.

It fell into silence again, but it was more of a comfortable silence. With anybody else, I would have wanted to try and revive some sort of conversation with them but it turns out that it wasn't a big necessity when I was with him. I felt comfortable in my own skin, which was new to me.

"So, where was your mom?" he asked me, his brown jacket slightly brushing against my arm. I shivered at the thought of him offering me his jacket. I wasn't cold. Not in the least. But to be wrapped in Xander's scent would be...intoxicating, to say the least.

"She's working. Won't be home for a while." I answered him easily, my thoughts still lost in fantasy.

"And your dad?" Wow. That definitely broke me out of it. Should I tell him?

"He...he's not home, either." I lied. It was nowhere near his 'home' anymore, whatever that meant.

"Oh, well, looks like we have you for quite some time there, buddy." he chuckled lightly and jabbed me softly on the shoulder for emphasis. It made me smile softly knowing that the idea of me around him wasn't just mandatory, but it was welcomed.

We finally made it to The Bronze and saw Buffy exiting it in a rather rushed manner. Her bangs were softly moving across the top of her face as she continued at a brisk pace in the opposite direction.

"Hey, you're leaving already?" Xander greeted, Buffy surprised by the contact. I looked at her, her eyes frantic and worried.

"Oh. Xander have you seen Willow?" she asked immediately after what Xander said. Wasn't Willow supposed to be inside? No...something's wrong; I can tell.

"Not tonight, no. We just got here." he said, gesturing behind him at me in acknowledgment. I didn't have time to feel good about because with the way Buffy made it seem, Willow really needed to be found. It's never good to be lost in Sunnydale.

"She left with a guy." Buffy informed us, her eyes moving back and forth between Xander's and mine, pleading with herself that everything would be okay.

"...Talking about Willow, right?" he joked, causing Buffy to scoff loudly at him. "Scorin' at The Bronze. Work it, Girlf-" At that point, I slapped Xander in the arm and pointed to Buffy to pay attention.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, looking back at me. His eyes meeting mine, and even though we were in a bad situation, I couldn't help but enjoy it.

"No, I need to find her. Where would he take her?" she asked Xander, not really expecting an answer. She searched the area within sight, taking a few steps in front of her, ready to leave.

"Why? Oh hey, I hope he's not a vampire because then you might have to _slay_ him." She looked back at us with shock in her eyes. I returned it with a knowing look which I hope didn't come off as feigned belief.

"...Wa...Was there, uhh, uhh, a school bulletin? Was it i-in the newspaper? Is there anyone in this town that doesn't know I'm the slayer?" She waved her arms out for emphasis, obviously peeved that her secret was no longer only hers and the librarian's.

"We only know that you _think _you're the slayer, and the reason we know that-" Xander started, attempting to explain it briefly, but was interrupted by a rushing Buffy.

"Look, whatever, it doesn't matter. Just tell me; where would Willow go? Because if we don't find her, there's going to be one more dead body in the morning."

"Where do vampires like to go, exactly?" I asked, trying to bring light to the problem at hand.

"...Cemetery! Come on, let's go!" she exclaimed as we all started running toward the local graveyard. We must have looked like psychos just sprinting down Blue Hill Street, but that didn't matter right now. What mattered was getting Willow away from this guy.

We made it to the cemetery, both Xander and I panting softly amongst ourselves as Buffy seemed unfazed by it. We looked around, looking for any sign that Willow was around here. Then, we heard a shriek come from one of the crypts ten feet away.

"Come on!" Buffy said, gesturing toward the small stone structure. Instantly, Buffy went from worried to sarcastic, using banter to psych out the enemies, perhaps?

"Well, this is nice. It's a little bare, but a dash of of paint, a few throw pillows; call it home." she teased as she ran her fingers across the top of a stone sarcophagus as she rounded it, looking brave in the sense that she could care less that these were vampires.

I looked over at the two unknown beings and couldn't help but see that their faces were deformed. Extra ridges went along their entire face and their eyes were a piercing yellow that you could clearly see, especially in the dark, almost glowing. And of course, their fangs stuck out the most. Sharp, pointed teeth were no longer hidden behind the crooked smile of the blonde vampire as she continued her banter with 'the chosen one.'

"Who the hell are you?" the vampire asked, walking toward Buffy. Xander tapped my hand from behind, causing me to jump slightly but still unnoticed, or at least ignored, by the two vampires that kept creeping toward the small blonde high school sophomore.

"Buffy, we bail now, right?" Xander asked, fear very noticeable in his voice.

"Not yet." the male vampire responded for her as they continued to approach her. I looked over at Willow and Jesse as Buffy continued on. Jesse had a wound on his neck, obviously being bitten by one of them. He looked dazed and out of it as he continued covering up the open wound. Willow, on the other hand, just looked absolutely terrified. I glanced over at Buffy to see if there was any chance we could sneak them out of here and I looked just in time to see Buffy pull out a wooden stake from her jacket and stab the vampire who crept up from behind her while she continued being witty with the blonde one. He gasped in pain and fell over, suddenly turning into nothing but...dust? Ash? I'm not sure how that works, but either way, I could feel my eyes practically bulge out from my sockets as my breathing became faster and more panicked.

"See what happens when you roughhouse?" Buffy said with amusement, the stake held up to her shoulder.

"He was young and stupid!" The vampire proclaimed in defense. If I wasn't mistaken, there was somewhat of surprise in her voice...maybe even some sort of terror.

"Xander, Eric, go!" Buffy called to us, followed closely by a warning from the creature across from her.

"Don't go far." Xander and I scattered to get Jesse and Willow. I helped Willow up while Xander got Jesse and we both helped him out of the crypt safely, the iron gate to the crypt squeaking. The sound of what could only be described as fighting could be heard from within the four walls as it echoed throughout the cemetery.

Almost immediately, the four of us ran as fast as we could across the many graves that lay upon the ground, nothing but green, gray, and black streaming past us as we were fueled by adrenaline. Adrenaline and fear.

"We'll get the police. It's just a few blocks up." Willow informed us as we continued to run. I could start to see dark moving figures in front of us but it was too late to turn back as more vampires started to surround us, causing us to stop in our tracks. They growled in hunger as they gazed at us like we were their next meal, and to be honest, I was truly terrified for our lives.

Behind us, I could hear blonde vampire from earlier start to laugh sinisterly, sending the most disturbing chill down my spine. If she was here, does that mean that Buffy...

At that point, each vampire grabbed one of us. I tried fighting back but it was no use, whoever this was was way too strong for me to handle. He threw me down on the ground and I could hear somebody else being thrown down next to me. They started to shriek with terror and I realized it was Willow who was struggling near me, her panicked screams vibrating in my ears.

"Let me go!" I yelled at the creature that now lay on top of me as Willow continued to fight back. The vampire snapped my neck to the side suddenly and I could see that Willow was in the same situation. "Get off!" I continued, even though it did nothing. I could now feel the tip of his fang tease at the base of my neck, only causing me to freeze completely as I silently pleaded for me life.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see another figure rushing toward us. Oh, God. Another vampire to make sure the job gets done. I closed my eyes in hopes to black out or faint or something. Anything so that I wouldn't have to feel every second of agony.

I felt the vampire above me push back, his fangs no longer anywhere near me or my exposed neck. I opened my eyes to see Buffy stake the final one with a broken tree branch, relief suddenly washing over me. I got up to help Willow off from the grass. I looked around and my heart sank; where are Xander and Jessie?

Buffy started to back away and then run in the opposite direction of where the crypt was. Willow and I both rushed after her, hoping that both of them were okay.

"Xander!" Willow exclaimed, causing me to turn my head toward where she was looking. Xander was being dragged by two vampires, obviously been hurt himself. Buffy appeared out of nowhere, staking one of them. The other fled away in fear of gaining the same fate.

"Xander." Willow knelt beside me as I helped Xander up, having his shoulder rest against my chest.

"Are you okay?" My voice sounded more frantic than was normal for somebody who was supposed to be an old friend, but nobody seemed to notice it, let alone acknowledge it.

"Man, something hit me." he replied as he clutched at his wounded head.

"W-where's Jesse?" Buffy asked to nobody specific, hoping for a positive answer.

"I don't know." I replied, my eyes now searching around the graveyard's many shadows.

"They surrounded us." Willow finished informatively, looking at Xander with a worried look in her eyes. Yes, she was definitely in love with him.

"That-that girl grabbed him and took off." Xander said, still a hand over the bloodied battle wound, the smell of iron wisping in the air from the crimson liquid.

"Jesse..." Buffy whispered as she stood there and looked around the cemetery for any sign of him.

We all helped Xander up, but Willow volunteered to take him home, which nobody had any objections to. Well...none that were verbal, anyway. Buffy walked me back to my house to make sure that I was safe.

"Thanks, Buffy." I said as we walked up the concrete path that led to my front door, the brightness of the white almost acting as a beacon of safety after what happened tonight.

"No problem." she said softly, obviously deep in her own thoughts.

"Buffy." I started, causing her to look up from the spot she was looking at absentmindedly on the ground. "We'll find Jesse." I assured her, feeling the need to try and comfort my new friend. Well, that's what anybody would be if they had to go through that with others, right? It brought us closer, and once we find Jesse, we will be closer to him, also.

"I know we will. We might need to talk to the librarian tomorrow." Buffy informed as she walked away, still following the cold, gray path.

"Right. Mr. Giles. The...Watcher, or whatever..." I was still somewhat confused as to what happened, but it was more out of shock than being uninformed. I had a feeling about all of this, and it all just became vividly clear tonight. "Don't worry, I'll be there first thing in the morning."

She flashed me a friendly smile before continuing on. "Hey Buffy. I don't have to worry about anything, like, coming in here, right?"

"Nope. Lucky for you, you don't need to go all Sister Mary and hang crosses everywhere. They can only come in when invited." she explained, a sigh of relief escaping my lips.

"Cool, thanks." I said before finally entering my home. I looked at the clock and noticed it was still only ten o' clock. I was alone in this eery silence for another two hours. I walked down the hall, each step seemingly growing louder the farther I went. The clomping of the hardwood floors underneath my steps didn't do much to help me ease my fears, either.

I entered my bedroom and flicked on the light, half expecting to see some sort of figure standing in the darkness, waiting for me. I walked over to my bedroom window and closed the blinds since I had a feeling that somebody was watching me from outside. Of course, nobody was, but I couldn't help the uneasiness that came with tonight's events.

**B U F F Y**

In the morning, we were all gathered in the library listening to Mr. Giles' brief history of demons. He told us that they lived on this planet way before any humans had. They lost touch with this world because it became more and more made for mortal beings.

"All that are left are 'The Old Ones.'" he continued on as he placed books onto the table we all shared. "Vestiges. Certain magics, certain creatures."

"And vampires." Buffy said as she continued nursing her arm, hurt from last night.

"Okay, this is where I have a problem." Xander suddenly interjected as he paced the floor of the carpeted room. "See, because we're talking about vampires. We're having a _talk_ with vampires in it."

"That doesn't mean they aren't real, Xander. You saw what happened last night." I said, trying to bring some sort of sanity into what Xander was trying to explain.

"No. No, those weren't vampires. Those were just...guys in thunder need of a facial. O-or maybe they had rabies. It could have been rabies." Buffy said, continuing to mock any sort of disbelief we all might have had. "And that guy turning into dust; just a trick of light...That's exactly what I said the first time I saw a vampire...well...after I was done with the screaming part..." I smirked slightly trying to picture the brave hero from last night screaming at anything...it didn't seem too realistic.

"Oh, I—I need to sit down..." Willow stated softly, her face paler than it ever was.

"You are sitting down." Buffy informed her as she looked down at her new friend.

"Oh, good for me..." Willow trailed off, still staring at nothing in particular.

"You okay?" I asked Willow in a soft tone and only received a very distracted nod. "I can't blame you for looking like you want to run out of here screaming at the top of your lungs. I mean, this is _completely_ insane...finally getting confirmation of everythi-"

"Wait, confirmation?" Xander asked curiously as he leaned against one of the tables across from where Willow and I were sitting. His brown eyes bore into mine as he waited for a response.

"Oh, come on. Haven't you guys ever suspected something weird has been going on here?" I asked, looking at the two old friends in the room. "I mean, the mysterious disappearances, the bodies hardly having a drop of blood left in them to cover the top of a thimble..."

"Well, it's certainly out of the ordinary." Mr. Giles spoke as he gazed upon the group of teenagers that were talking about the paranormal in his library.

"So, vampires are demons." It was uttered out of Xander's mouth more as a statement than it was a question, which meant that there was finally some understanding within the group itself.

"The books tell that the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human; mixed their blood. He was uh—uh a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul. He bit another, and another...and so they walked the earth; feeding."

"Thus the creation of the big fanged baddies." I said as Xander took the book from the older man and looked at its scriptures.

"They waited for the animals to die out...and 'The Old Ones' to return." Mr. Giles continued, finally granting some clarity on 'how.'

"What about slayers?" Willow asked, still in somewhat of a daze as she continued to speak in only a soft tone overwhelmed by information.

"And that would be a _what_?" Xander asked as he continued to pace the library as he did just a couple of minutes beforehand. Xander had this cute confused face that made me practically melt into my seat, but I kept it to myself. Oh, wait. The British man is talking. Surely, it's more important than Xander's adorable expressions. Must...look...away...! There!

"...One girl in all the world; a chosen one."

"He loves doing this part." Buffy said with a small grin on her face, causing me to smirk as well as I recalled the previous time he had explained to Buffy and, unbeknownst to the two at the time, Xander and I.

"Alright." Mr. Giles started again, an exasperated sigh leaving his mouth. "Slayers kill vampires. Buffy's a slayer. Don't tell anyone." I chuckled silently to myself at how simplistic it all actually was.

"See? Now was that so hard using small and short descriptions for us American teenagers?" I teased, finding it both friendly and comfortable.

"I think that's all the vampire information you need." he finished, looking down at the books of demons sitting on top of the wooden bookshelves across from him.

"Except for one thing; how do you kill them?" Xander asked the question that was on probably both Willow's and my own mind. He had a point, though. We need some way of protecting ourselves.

"You don't. I do." Buffy pointed out as she continued to nurse her forearm in a blue rag of some sort.

"But Jesse's my-" Xander attempted to continue but was stopped by Buffy.

"Jesse is _my _responsibility. I let him get taken."

"That's not true, Buffy. We were all there yesterday. We're just glad you were there at all" I said, having everybody look in my direction as they briefly took in what I said before Willow elaborated on it.

"Eric's right. If you hadn't shown up, they would have taken us, too." Xander and I both nodded in agreement. "Does anybody mind if I pass out." Buffy then continued to help calm Willow down by making her breathe.

"This big guy, Luke, he talked about an offering to a master. Now, I don't know what or who, but if they were just feeding, then Jesse may still be alive...I'm gonna find him." Buffy stated clearly, the news about this only hitting the rest of us for the first time.

"What about the police?" Willow asked sheepishly, her face letting the room know that she felt stupid hearing it out loud.

"I don't think they would believe that we were attacked by vampires. We can't just make up that they were some tragic plastic surgery gang..." I explained, hopefully clearing that up.

"No?" Guess not. Willow looked at me in hope that maybe we could.

"No." I said.

"No..." She looked like a lost puppy, so I tried to comfort her by patting her on the shoulder closest to me. She looked at me with a kind smile and we both returned to the conversation at hand.

"So, you have _no _idea where they took Jesse?" Mr. Giles spoke once again as he readjusted his glasses for the second time since he stood back up.

"I checked the graveyard but I when I wasn't looking, they could have just _fwoom_." Buffy expressed with a sound effect for emphasis.

"They can fly?" Xander asked urgently, his eyes wider than they were before. I found his comment cute and it was hard to hold in a laugh, but I could do nothing to hide the grin on my face.

"They can drive." Buffy informed Xander, making me let out a chuckle. Xander looked in my direction and laughed softly with me.

"But I don't remember hearing a car..." Willow told us as she leaned over the table, her arms resting on it.

"Come to think of it, they were pretty...you know...soundless..." I agreed, lack of a better term escaping me at the moment.

"Quiet." Buffy said, trying to cover up what I had just said. I gave a short nod before proceeding.

"I may be crazy for suggesting this, but...what if they went underground?"

"Vampires really jam on sewer systems. You can get anywhere in the town without catching any rays." Buffy informed us as she stood up from what seemed like feeling too antsy. "But, I didn't see any access there."

"What about the electrical tunnel system that leads all over town?" Xander

"We do have a diagnostic that might indicate a meeting place. I suppose we could go to the building commission." Mr. Giles slid his hands into his tweed pockets as he tried to form some sort of plan.

"I don't think we have that kind of time, you know?" I said, hoping that I wasn't the only person that was still fearful of whatever time schedule the vampires might have made for us.

"Uh, guys?" Willow started, gathering everybody's attention on her. "There may be another way."

"How?" Xander asked quizzically as he slightly leaned forward.

**B U F F Y**

A bunch of computer pings and blips later, Willow found the blueprints to the tunnels.

"Lookie there. They run under the graveyard..." I commented observantly, but everyone could already see that.

"I don't see any access." Xander said as he looked over the blueprints next to me. I could feel the heat from his body resonating onto me. I wished I could get closer to feel more, but Jesse was still in danger, so my troubled little teenage fantasies will just have to wait for another day.

"So, the city plans are just...open to the public...?" The librarian asked from behind me, I gave a small knowing smirk that they weren't nearly available to the populace of Sunnydale.

"Umm...well...i—in a way...I sort of stumble onto them...when I accidentally decrypted the city council security system..." Willow explained, trying to keep her innocence in what she was doing.

"Someone's been naughty." Xander teased, causing me to grin widely and start to chuckle before Buffy jumped up in frustration.

"There's nothing here; this is useless! I mean, I was on top of things when that vampire, Luke, just came out of nowhere-" A glazed look fell over her as she paused mid-sentence. "He didn't just come out of nowhere; he came from behind me." I quickly decided this was no time for jokes, so I'll save that one for Xander later if the subject ever came up again...wait, sorry...trailing off, now. Back to Buffy-talk. "The entrance is inside the mausoleum. The girl must have rounded the graveyard and came back there after we were gone. God! I am so mentally challenged!" she exclaimed as she briefly ran her fingers over her temples.

"So what, we just saddle up and go in there?" Xander asked as he approached the golden blonde girl only to be shot down completely.

"...There is no 'we.'" Buffy informed us. "I'm the slayer, and you're not..." she said as she looked at the three of us behind Xander, hoping for some sort of support.

"I knew you'd throw that back in my face. I'm inadequate...that's fine. I'm less than a man..." Xander was hurt from Buffy's comment and I could see it more so when he turned around that it was in not only his posture, but in his eyes, too. They were filled with both sadness and frustration, and I didn't really know which one was winning.

"Buffy, I'm not anxious to go into a dark place full of monsters, but I do want to help. I need to...we need to." Willow said, gesturing toward me. I nodded in agreement and looked up for a response from Buffy.

"Willow, you can help me." Mr. Giles began as he knelt down to Willow's side as he looked upon the lit up computer screen. "Help me with this harvest affair. It seems to be some sort of preordained massacre; rivers of blood, Hell on earth...quite charmist. I'm a bit fuzzy, however, on the details. Maybe you could rest information from that dread machine..." We all just stared at him as if he was speaking a different language entirely. Moments passed before he looked up to see the confused looks on all of our faces. "That was a bit, umm...British, wasn't it?"

"Nah, I understood. I think I heard a 'the' in there...right?" I looked over at him with fake need of confirmation.

"I want you to go on the net." The English librarian simplified it to it's simplest terms, making Willow and I finally both understand.

"Oh, sure. I can do that." Willow said proudly as she started typing in something into the computer, a window popping up that looked rather unfamiliar to me.

"I already know of some sites and texts that might have some significance. I've been researching quite a bit lately and might come up with something useful." I informed the group as I slid a chair next to Willow.

"Very well, then." Mr. Giles said with a small smile.

"I'm out of here. If Jesse's alive, I'll bring him back." As if that needed to be confirmed, but I didn't glance up from the computer screen, anyway.

"Do I have to tell you to be careful?" Giles asked Buffy as he readjusted his glasses from the tip of his nose to a resting point on the bridge of it. Silence was her response.

**B U F F Y**

I stayed behind in the library with Mr. Giles as Xander and Willow headed off to class. It was 2nd period, so I had a free period and was able to continue researching the simple things versus Willow's bad-ass ability to hack into whatever computer system she wanted. Of course, I looked up simple terms like 'vampire feeding' and 'vampire master' but that only led me to freaky porn sites that made both he and I blush profusely. I continued on with a term I remember him mentioning earlier. As Mr. Giles put it, 'the harvest.'

After a few pages of nothing but links to websites dedicated to big dinners for the nuclear family-type, I came across something. "Mr. Giles, I think I might have found something." I called as I gestured him over from the stack of books and scriptures he was looking over. He took off his glasses as looked upon the lit screen.

"It says something in Latin. Can you read that?" I asked him curiously. Sure, it probably wasn't likely that a high school librarian/babysitter would be able to read one bit of Latin, but it was worth a tr-"

"It appears that it just talks about a meal with very rare steak fit for a king. Don't think that would help us much, would it?" he teased as he positioned the glasses back onto his nose and went back to the pile of selections he picked out. I grabbed my piece of paper that listed some reading material that might help our cause.

"Where would I find the _real_ selection of mystical literature? You know, not the kind that Anne Rice could construct and publish it." He gave me a knowing look and proceeded to send me to the back room.

"How did you find out about all of this even before yesterday afternoon?" he asked quizzically before I turned the corner into the next room.

"I'm just observant, I suppose." I explained as I stood near one of the bookshelves holding some ancient texts I could never pronounce without sounding like a total dick.

"Yes well, you're rather wise to realize something was wrong." I smiled sweetly at him through the tangible wall, unable to see him and vice-verse.

"Thanks" I replied before gathering some of the stuff that needed to be studied for further analysis.

After another half an hour of gathering some more possible aids, Giles advised me to go to my next class. I didn't want to because there was so much more I had to do, but he told me that it was best not to look suspicious. I agreed to come back during lunch hour, though.

The classes passed by ever so slowly, yet they were felt very foggy. I couldn't help but have my mind wander back to everything, and not only the research, but if Jesse was truly okay.

"Did you hear? That weird girl, Muffy, almost shot Cordelia with a pistol!" a tan girl with black curly hair said as she whispered to the blonde haired girl next to her. The teacher was still talking, but that didn't seem to stop them.

"Well, I heard it was a switch knife and that she threatened to cut her if she told anybody." the lighter haired girl said, her eyes filled with amusement. I couldn't help but feel the anger boil in me, hoping that it wouldn't overflow...that didn't last long...

"Well, _I_ heard that she stole a guitar, smashed it over Cordelia's head and continued to play 'Smoke On The Water' in B-Flat..." I spat, hoping to prove my point with sarcasm. They just glared at me and continued on, calling me 'a freak' or whatever. I laughed at that just loud enough that they heard me. They turned to face me with a look of disgust on my face while I continued to look indifferent and gave them a friendly smile.

"Hi, we're trying to have a _private_ conversation here. Maybe you can try _not_ to be a nosy little freakazoid." the curly haired one argued, her mouth curled into a sneer as she fiddled with her 'cute' pencil. You know, the glittery ones with the little poof on top that made it look like one of those troll dolls.

I clicked my tongue before I replied, still seeming rather emotionless. "You know, I would...but, your guys' volume is _so_ enhanced that it has became _insanely_ hard not to interject between your moronic buzz of 'he said, she said.'"

Both of them scoffed loudly before they grabbed their books and stood up as the teacher had her back facing the class. "Come on, Kandi. Let's get away from this mutant queer before we catch AIDS or something." she insulted, my nostrils absolutely flaring at their bigotry. But, I kept my cool and just kept on conversing with insulting banner.

"Yeah, you know, I would absolutely _die_ for the chance at it but I kind of already gave that to your boyfriend a couple nights ago in the back of his mom's mini van, and I don't really feel up to giving it to you right now. Just give him a BJ in the bathroom and, I promise, you'll be golden." I said with a kind smile as if we were having a conversation as friends. "Just, you know, make sure you do it like I did. He told me you kind of suck at it and that I was better."

Once again, they scoffed, a look of both annoyance and anger visible on both of their faces as they walked toward the other side of the classroom, looking back at me as they sat down as they whispered on about something, most likely starting a rumor about me. No doubt that it would get around the school that I admitted to it, even though I've never even kissed anybody, let alone had sex with them in their parents' cars. I was happy to take a bullet for Buffy, though. She saves my life, I help save her social one by sacrificing my own. Not like I had much of one, anyways.

I know who my real friends are and I was with them all of last night. I just hope they feel the same and that once we get Jesse, we will still be able to hang out.

**B U F F Y**

After my last class, I decided to see if I could do more to help with doing my part to save Jesse and find out what was going on, so I went back to the library in search of Giles, I decided it was short than saying Mr. Giles, and found Willow at the table going through a couple of books.

"Is Buffy back yet?" I asked curiously, a tinge of worry in my voice. I sat my bag down onto the table and pulled up a seat next to her.

"No, no word. And it wasn't just Buffy. I think Xander might have snuck out to follow her." My heart dropped at that. Not only was the life of my new blonde mystical friend in danger, but also the boy who shared his cookies and juice with me. I think Willow noticed my fear and put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure they're both fine." Her voice was soft and calming, relaxing me a little bit.

"Where's Giles?" I asked as I searched around the room for the Englishman.

"He's trying to make sense of some stuff I found in some newspapers." she informed me, her hand resting on the dusty book that lay in front of her as she looked over at me.

"Way to go, Willow. I thin I might have found some stuff, too. Some ancient texts said some stuff that I couldn't really translate. Giles said he'd look over them during my classes..." I corrected, remembering I had only been to my math class. "I got sick of hearing people talk, though."

"Rumors going around in your classes, too?" she asked curiously. I nodded in response, sharing the confirmation that I didn't want; that it wasn't just those two girls that heard about Cordelia Chase's tall tales.

A few more minutes of going through some literature with carvings of vicious demons and magical creatures, Willow turned to me suddenly.

"Eric, do you have...feeli-" she started but was interrupted by the doors opening in the front of the room.

"Did you find Jesse?" Willow called out worriedly to the two that entered. Thank God that they're both okay, though.

"Yeah." Xander said simply, his tone glum making me think that Jesse was no longer alive.

"Is he dead?" Willow's voice was tinier than before, realizing that Xander wasn't exactly ecstatic at this point.

"Worse." Buffy informed us. What could be worse than...oh...poor Jesse. He never did anything to deserve that.

"I'm sorry, Willow. We were too late, and they were waiting for us." Buffy apologized sincerely as she sat down in the wooden chair across from the two researchers of the group.

"Well, at least you two are okay." I looked over at Xander, truly happy to see him here and alive. Even though I saw him pull back his leg in frustration, I still jumped at the loud kick he gave to the recycle bin near the back room. Both Willow and Xander lost one of their best friends today. I never had one, but I'm sure that it must be absolutely horrible. "I don't like vampires. I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good." A feeling of agreement and understanding circled the room as each of us couldn't really find much good to say about them, except that they get to experience many Christmas mornings, but I doubt that vampires are big on the whole 'fluffy white snow and gift-giving' part of it all.

"So, Giles..." Buffy began, her head now resting on the back of her hand. I looked behind me to see him for the first time in about an hour. "Got anything that could make this day any worse?"

Giles walked from behind the stacks of books and went toward the white board which he had previously written down some scenarios and theories. "How about the end of the world...?"

"I knew I could count on you." Buffy responded as she joked to cover the worry that everybody was currently sporting.

"Yes, way to be a mood lifter there, Giles." Gesturing was something I did with jokes and teasing, but I stayed clear of that since it was more dry humor than comical.

"This is what we know..." Giles continued as he paced past Willow and I and toward the middle of the room to lean onto the table we were sitting at. "Some sixty years ago, a very old, very powerful vampire came to this shore, not just to feed."

"He came because this town is a mystical whoozit." Buffy said, more as a statement and less as a question.

"Yes...the Spanish that settled here called it 'Boca de Infierno'...roughly translated; Hellmouth."

" That makes sense. I mean, if the whole world were experiencing this, then everybody would know about vampires and demons and...whatever other...yeah...demons..." I said slowly, not really sure where the end to my sentence really was.

"It served as sort of a portal between this reality and the next." Giles continued. I could see Xander from the corner of my eye start to move from his spot in the back and continued to go back and forth between spots. "This vampire wished to open it."

"Bring the demons back" Buffy clarified as she lifted her head from resting on her arms. Willow seemed much like she did this morning, but a little less confused. Wow...was it really just this morning that we first discussed all of this with each other. It seems much longer than that.

"But he blew it." Willow spoke with information from her recent research that she explained to me a little bit earlier. "Or...there was an earthquake that swallowed half the town and him, too."

"Opening dimensional portals is a tricky business. Odds are he got stuck, much like a, uh, a cork in a bottle." Giles simplified, motioning how it was possible as he knelt down to our eye level.

"So, this harvest thing is to get him out." Xander said, breaking the silence he had kept since all of this started to be discussed. Guess he was listening, after all.

"It comes once in a century; on this night." Giles continued, his face still rather stoney and cryptic of what he really felt about all of this. "The Master can draw power from one of his minions as he feeds. Enough power to...break free and open the portal..." He started to walk over to the white board once again and erased the word 'Hellmouth' from it's surface. "The minion is called a 'vessel' and he bares this symbol." he explained, drawing a three point star onto the board with a black marker.

"So, I dust anyone sporting that symbol, and no harvest." The blonde hero said confidently as she got up from the table and walked over to Giles.

"Simply put, yes." the librarian blinked as he turned around to face her.

"Any idea where this little get together is being held?" she continued, her hands on her hips and ready to stop whatever evil might be threatening our existence.

"They're going to The Bronze." Xander said, his voice still as glum as before. I felt for him, I really did.

"You sure?" Willow asked, not a hundred percent sure Xander's theory was accurate.

"Come on, all those tasty young morsels all over the place." he defended as he looked at us all, stopping his gaze on me. "Anyway, that's where Jesse's gonna be; trust me." I frowned to myself thinking what I could have possibly done to save Jesse from his fate. Oh yeah, maybe not screamed for help like a little girl on her Barbie trike. God, if I had seen where they had went...

"Yeah, it makes sense. It's dark, crowded. They could get in without any problems." My support for Xander's thoughts escaped as it added on to whatever ideas were floating around between the five of us.

"Then we should get there. The sun won't be down before long." Giles informed us as he pulled on his coat. Willow and I both got up from our chairs and followed, knowing it was time to make a difference tonight. Xander walked beside me, I glanced up quickly at him, but he was too busy in his thoughts to notice.

"I gotta make a stop. It won't take long." Buffy said, catching up to Giles' side.

"What for?" He asked curiously as he looked back at the supernatural teenager.

"Supplies." she said simply as we all exited the school library.

**B U F F Y**

We ran to Buffy's house and waited outside for her to race back down.

"So, what do we, anyways, to protect ourselves?" I asked curiously, looking at Giles for information.

"Buffy told me it's all the stereotypical things; stakes to the heart, sunlight, holy water, crosses...all that fun stuff." Xander informed us, his eyes wandering the dark streets as we saw Buffy's bedroom light flick on and gazed out the window for a split second to notify us that she was there.

"And what happens if we don't have any of that stuff on us?" My curiosity grew with each passing word, along with worry and pessimism.

"Then, you end up like Jesse...and nobody wants that..." Xander's voice was unemotional, but his eyes spoke for him. He was grieving in his own way. He hasn't cracked a joke, he hasn't laughed. This wasn't the Xander everybody knew of. This was a whole new side to Xander I don't think he's ever shown to his friends, let alone anybody else.

After a minute or two of uncomfortable silence, Buffy opened her window and slid her bag down the roof of her house as she lifted one leg over the windowsill and started to climb out. She landed on her feet with a small 'oomph' but was otherwise completely quiet.

"Alright. Let's go kick some ass before my mom figures out I snuck out..."

**B U F F Y**

We all ran up to the doors of the club we all knew of well. Buffy was the first one to make it to the entrance. She wiggled the handle, but was unsuccessful at opening it. "It's locked."

"We're too late." Giles verbally confirmed as he spun on his heels and faced the opposite direction.

"I didn't know I was gonna get grounded!" Buffy defended as she waved her hands in disbelief. Giles made his way back toward the doors and tried once more, hoping it was some sort of mistake.

"Can you break it down?" Xander's idea echoed between us, his hand gesturing toward the door.

"Yeah, I'm sure with enough of us, we cou-" I began, but was mistaken to think it was a good idea to elaborate on.

"No, not that thing. Umm...you guys try to get in through the back entrances and...uhh...I'll find my own way." Buffy spoke once more as she examined the club's external walls, looking for some sort of less obvious way to get in.

We motioned toward following her plan, but was stopped by her urgent voice. "Guys, wait. Here." she handed Willow over the bag of what must have been weapons and supplies and continued. "You get the exit cleared and the people out. That's _all_." she warned as she passed looks over all four of us, making sure we got it, her eyes lingering on Xander. "Don't go "Wild Bunch" on me"

"Well...see you inside, then." Giles said, briefly touching Willow's arm to signal her it was finally time to make our way around the building. The four of us rushed along each other, a sense of panic flowing between us, thick in the air.

We made it to the first entrance we saw and Willow ended up pulling on the handle this time. "Oh, joy." she said, confirming that it was, in fact, another locked entryway. I put my hands on my hip in frustration, trying to regain my composure back to normal.

"We've _got_ to get in there before Jesse does something _stupider_ than usual." Xander implied as he swung his arm down, having the same frustrated feeling I felt.

"You listen to me." Giles jumped up with a pointed finger at the tall boy, his dark locks shifting ever so slightly as he turned his attention toward the older man. "Jesse is dead." he continued, his voice tired and panting for air. "Remember that when you see him, you're not looking at your friend...you're looking at the thing that killed him." Xander only looked at him with acceptance, but I knew that for him, letting go of his best friend was way too hard. It may not have been written all over his face, but it was subtly hidden in his brown irises.

There was commotion coming from inside the club, making us scramble for some way to get in. Giles settled with a metal trash can and slammed it against the lock, causing it to break off and allowing us into the building. "Hurry!" he exclaimed as the we rushed inside, a small part of me hoping we weren't met with any undead soldiers. I trailed behind Willow and Giles and noticed that Xander had run off without us, eager to find his friend...or former friend, I suppose.

Soon enough, though, people started to run towards us, or rather, started running toward the exit, hoping to get out alive. We helped them get out.

After the last person had exited, Giles had an idea. "We may need to open the front entrance as well." In a flash, a vampire jumped onto Giles, straddling him onto the ground. It was the same blonde vampire from last night. Behind her came another vampire; a male one with short black hair and a cobalt striped button up. He straddled his legs, making sure he wouldn't squirm. I ran over to the other side of the hallway, coming up with a plan to hopefully have them follow me.

"Hey, Butterface!" I called, both demons snapping their heads up at me. "Free snack." I pushed my arms out in emphasis, making it clear that I was defenseless.

"Take care of the boy." The female creature said, her face bending down toward Giles.

"With pleasure." the other vampire grinned sinisterly, his fangs evident. Before running around the corner, I made sure I made eye contact with Willow to make sure she found a way to take care of the one holding down Giles.

Running up the stairs, I was caught by my leg, his hands bruising and rough. Luckily, I kicked out of his grip, causing the bottom of my shoe to come into contact with his face, knocking him back down the staircase. My mind told me that I wasn't done yet and I started running up the stairs once again, hopefully faster than before. I rounded the corner and swiftly took the stake I had hidden in between my jeans and boxers and quickly tied it to my shoelace, hiding it underneath my white sneakers.

As soon as he turned the corner, he had a wide grin on his face, his yellow hungry eyes glaring at me with amusement. A scream could be heard from downstairs; a woman. But I knew Willow's screams, and those weren't hers. I was hoping those were the other vampire's.

It seemed to distract the being in front of me long enough for me to quickly bring my foot back and kick with enough force in the groin to topple him over.

"Glad to know that still works." I spoke humorously as I saw the vampire roll around, groaning while his disfigured face warped into something I haven't seen as of yet; a vampire in pain. It gave me enough fuel to continue with my plan. I took my foot back and swung at his chest as hard as possible, placing my hands on the concrete wall for balance.

I felt my foot stop abruptly, making it clear that the stake stabbed the creature in its chest. Now, the question was, did I get him in the heart?

I looked down fast enough to see him turn to dust, my foot breaking free from the well-preserved corpse. I quickly smiled at myself in satisfaction as I ran downstairs to make sure the others were okay.

Going down the stairs, I was met by Willow and Giles, all three of us shouting in surprise, my arms making the most movement as I slipped down the step I was about to reach. The both helped me up as I leaned against the wall reach for my shoe.

"Did you get the-?" Willow asked briefly before I gestured toward the stake tied to my white Nike's.

"Clever." Giles blinked as he adjusted his glasses for the first time that night. "Alright, yes, let's go." We proceeded to follow him in a rush down the rest of the steps.

As soon as we entered the main room, we saw that it was only the five of us, now. The room eerily empty of any other form of life...or death, in this case. "I take it it's over?" Giles asked, cleaning off his hands, probably still wondering if it had vampire dust on them.

"Did we win?" Willow asked sheepishly as we all made out way toward each other.

"Hopefully. I don't want to see another vampire pop out from behind that dark corner." I gestured toward the very back of the room covered by complete darkness. The five at us stared at it for a few seconds, half expecting there to be something there, but we soon started realizing that it would be way too ironic to see a creepy walk out from there.

"Well...at least we averted the apocalypse." Buffy said, grabbing her jacket that Xander was holding out for her. She hugged it close to her body, the exhaustion of the last two days finally catching up to us. "Give us points for that..."

Behind me, I heard Giles searching for something in his jacket, I glanced behind me only to find him cleaning his glasses. I smirked, finding the familiar action weirdly comforting.

"One things for sure." Xander began, slightly exasperated by tonight's events. "Nothing's ever going to be the same." That didn't dawn on me until now. My life would never be as simple anymore. No more students that I hung around as to not look lonely. No more being uninformed of what really goes on in this town, always having to be skeptical on whether or not events were normal or supernatural.

No, Xander was right. Nothing _could_ ever be the same. But somehow, I knew we were all better off.

"Smoothies?" My sudden invitation causing the four of my new friends to turn and look at me.

"Yeah, sure. I could go for a delicious smoothie." Xander spoke up first, causing the rest of them to finally respond. Xander put his arm around me, but I knew it was only in a friendly manner. I just couldn't help but feel all warm within his half-hearted embrace.

"Ooh, I want something with strawberries." Willow said happily as we turned toward the exit, walking in its direction.

"I'm feeling exotic tonight. I might go with mango." Buffy interjected, her coat hanging loosely in her arms.

"Yes, I could go for a, uh, a 'smoothie' as you call it." Giles smiled briefly as he put his cleaning cloth back into the inside pocket of his jacket and planted his lenses back onto his face.

Yeah, we're definitely all better off.

**B U F F Y**

I entered my house, calling out for my mother before realizing there was still another fifteen minutes before her shift even ended.

I took off my jacket before making my way back to my room to change into something much more comfortable. T-shirt and some sweats should do. I sighed to myself heavily as I realized what a long night it was. No, not just night; day. It has probably been one of the longest days I've ever had. Thank God it was topped off with a fun outing with friends.

It was incredibly too stuffy in my house thanks to this dry California heat us Sunnydalians have to endure. I turned on the AC briefly to help the house out and opened some windows to let the air in.

Once I was done opening the window in my bedroom, I flopped down onto my bed with a book in hand. I got it from the library earlier today, hoping that it might inform me of some stuff. It was recommended by Giles as a sort of clarification on what demons and vampires truly meant and how they were even here.

After a couple of pages in, I was startled by a voice at my window.

"Surprised you didn't die tonight." a mysterious figure said, only half of his face illuminated by my bedroom light. He had brown hair that was spiked up with as little bit of hair product as possible, as his hair seemed rather soft. His eyes were a warm golden brown that were kind and inviting. His skin was a little bit more pale than normal, but that might have just been the lighting. His cheek bones were rather sculpted, also, bringing more to this figure standing before me.

I gasped, shocked to hear somebody at my window. "Who the he-"

"You know, most people aren't aware of what goes on around them. How come you were before any of this?" he asked curiously as he stepped forward. I backed away slowly, even though there was still a barrier between us. "Relax. I don't bite." And for whatever reason it was, I believed him one hundred percent. It put me at ease for reasons unknown. "So how come, Eric?" he asked after a long moment of silent shared between the two of us.

"How come what?"

"How come you knew about the things you shouldn't have?" His voice was a tad bit more curious than the first time as it rung in my ears as a sound so calming, it would probably haunt me in my sleep tonight.

"Because this town doesn't just have normal deaths. There's always something that ties back to weird things." I explained as I set the book down on my nightstand next to my alarm clock, not turning away from the face glowing at me from behind the wall. "What's your name, anyways? Since, _apparently_, you know mine..."

"Angel." he responded with some sort of amusement in his eyes, baring a small grin.

"I like your name, Angel."

"Thank you." he responded, his grin somewhat bigger now.

"I had a cat named 'Angel' before. She didn't seem to mind the name, either." He smirked back at me, obviously getting the snide yet teasing remark.

"So, why are you here? I doubt it's to see my mom's flower garden." I stood up this time, closer to the window, unafraid of him.

"Already saw it. Quite lovely. Love the color of the petunias." he joked, causing a smirk to creep onto my face.

"Well, I'll be sure to let her know." After a brief silence, I asked the question once more.

"Just came to tell you to be careful. You don't know what's out there." he warned me, a much more serious tone to his voice than before. The smile on my face also disappeared entirely. I inched closer reflexively, wanting him to elaborate.

"What do you me-"

"Eric, I'm home!" the familiar voice of my mother called from behind me, causing me to turn back toward the sudden noise. Once I had turned back, Angel was gone. I stuck my head out the window, hoping to see where he had gone to but was unsuccessful.

I walked outside toward the entrance to the house to see my mom entering the kitchen, her curly golden brown hair bobbing as she walked. I followed her in and found her at the microwave, opening it to reveal nothing. Oh, crap.

"Oh...you didn't make dinner tonight?" she asked me disbelievingly, her small voice showing signs of exhaustion. Not only did her voice show signs of being tired, but as did her solid sapphire eyes. They were drained of any sort of energy.

"I am _so _sorry. I completely spaced. Let me make you an egg sandwich or something." I apologized, pulling out a frying pan from a cupboard next to the stove.

"Oh, sweetie, you don't have to d-" she began, but I interrupted her to defend my actions.

"Mom, I know you're tired, and you need to eat something before your blood sugar gets too low. Now," I defended as I took out the bread from the pantry across the kitchen, "go take the pills for your diabetes and take your blood sugar level. Let me know if I need to give you some orange juice."

She looked at me lovingly as she grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it up with water. "You're so good to me." She took a couple steps toward me and embraced me in a tight hug. "It's been...tough, to say the least, since your father-"

"I know." I interrupted, not being able to stand hearing anybody even say the words. She gave me a knowing before she continued.

"I love you. So much. Don't _ever_ forget that."

"I know, Mom. I love you, too." I said, hugging her back full-heartedly. She left the room to go do what she had to do and by the time she was back, I had made the sandwich for her and proceeded to wash all of the dishes as she told me about her day.

"How about you? How was your day, sweetie?" she asked curiously, her head tilting to the side much like I did when I was sincerely curious.

"Oh, well...you know..." I responded, internally nervous out of my mind. She just nodded knowingly and continued taking the last few bites of her sandwich and sipping the last few gulps of orange juice.

I gave her a goodnight kiss on the forehead and made my way back to my room. I flipped the switch to my light, turning it off and flopped down on my bed for the second time that night.

I sighed to myself as I just laid there, unwilling to move to get up and close my window. It didn't feel like I had to, anyway. But what did Angel mean by what he said?

I pondered it for a good hour or so before I was able to go sleep at around 2 A.M. I snuggled into my blanket, it's warmth drifting me that much closer to sleep. It was the only sense of normality today, and that's all I needed.

**B U F F Y**

I woke up that morning and took a shower before heading off to school yet again. In the shower, I came to a conclusion that I would need to find more out about Angel before I mentioned anything to them. I mean, for all I knew, I could have been hallucinating from exhaustion. Oh, lord. Now I'm sounding like the rest of Sunnydale's populace, making excuses for the unexplained. No, there was definitely something up with him, and I'm going to find out what...

As soon as I had stepped foot onto the campus, all of these rumors floated around about last night, most of them coming from, big shocker, one Cordelia Chase.

"...and Buffy, like, _knew _them, which is just _too_ weird. I mean, I don't even remember that much, but I'm telling you; it was a freak show!" she informed her blonde friend, I scoffed at how she seriously turned it around from Buffy saving her life to saying she was a friend of the man who tried to kill her. Very nice, Ms. Chase...

I spotted both Buffy and Xander and gave them a big grin, but it mostly stayed on Xander. I walked up to the both of them and turned around to walk back in the direction I had came from since they were headed that way, anyway.

"What exactly were you guys expecting?" Buffy asked as she took the bright red lollipop from her mouth.

"I don't know. Something...I mean, the dead _rose_. Should have at least had an assembly..." Xander added, his hands slightly flailing out in exaggeration.

"I would prefer a parade." I started, walking to Xander's side. "Or at least a change in today's lunch special from mystery stew surprise to something, oh I don't know, _edible_."

"Rumor is is that the 'surprise' is that it doesn't contain any meat that you can buy at a normal grocery store." Buffy informed us, her candy kind of glistening from the natural lighting outside.

"Yeah, that's not a surprise to me." Xander dead-panned, causing me to grin, which broke his stony face and had him grinning alongside me. That's when both Giles and Willow caught up to us. Giles was carrying some old leathery text while Willow was fidgeting with her hands.

"Well, I'll never forget it, none of it." Willow spoke, her eyes in disbelief that anybody would rationalize whatever they saw last night.

"Good. Next time, you'll be prepared." Giles said simply, his posture seeming more teasing than it had before, but I don't think it was just teasing.

"Next time? I'm sorry, Eric...did he say next time?" he asked me, patting my shoulder to stop me in my tracks for a moment.

"I sure hope not, because the only thing that would even come close to resembling a cross at my house would be tire iron we have in the garage." I responded comically, causing the four of us to grin softly.

"We prevented the Master from freeing himself and...opening the mouth of Hell. That's not to say he's going to stop trying. My guess is that the fun is just beginning." he said in an unfazed yet informative matter as he adjusted the glasses resting on his face.

"_More _vampires?" Willow asked Giles, seeing if she heard him correctly.

"Not just vampires." Giles stated swiftly, trying to sound as serious as possible. "The next threat we face could be something quite different."

"I can hardly wait." Buffy joked as she shrugged her shoulders in indifference.

"We're in the central of a mystical convergence here." Giles was quite serious, trying to get our attentions back and our minds from slacking. "We may have, in fact, stepped in front of the earth and it's total destruction."

"Well, I gotta look on the bright side; maybe I could still get kicked out of school." Buffy continued as we started making our way further from the English Watcher.

"Oh yeah, that's a plan. 'Cuz our school's not on 'Hellmouths.' Xander added, going along with the joking style Buffy had began.

"I was researching in the library yesterday and came across some weird porn sites that could 'mysteriously' pop up on your screen during electronics class." I added, enjoying the time with my new friends.

"Or maybe you can blow something up. They're really strict about that."

"I was thinking of a more subtle approach, you know? Like, excessive not-studying..." I smirked at Buffy's comment as we continued along with our mindless babble.

Yeah, this was great. I felt not only accepted around them, but welcomed. It was weird to me; different. But it was different in the best way possible.

**B U F F Y**

**Hey! It's FINALLY done! YAY! The two episodes I saw for this first chapter felt like the _longest_ episodes of any show known to man. I had to pause practically every line so that I could get it right.**

**Now, as you can see. This was very familiar considering it was the pilot. I added a couple of my own things and only did it in Eric's POV, but I promise that from now on, everything will just be a select few episodes written somewhat differently. Much more differently than from what I had here.**

**Well, hope you guys enjoyed it. Let me know by reviewing and putting me on alert! :D**


	2. Chapter II: If It Walks Like A Witch

**Chapter two of my Buffyverse series! Yay! This contains the episode "Witch"**

**Now, I attempted to go through this episode rather fast, but quickly realized that it needed some more detail just due to the fact that it had a bit of real significance in them. 1) Amy is introduced and 2) "Witch" is kind of the first mission after Jesse's passing that means they are in it together.**

**Pairings: One-sided Xander/Eric and some one-sided Angel/Eric if you squint real hard.**

**Disclaimer: No, I'm not Joss Whedon, but boy would it be nice if I were. Don't think I own any part of the Buffyverse outside of my own dreams, because I don't. I only sulk all day wishing Angel were real and would visit my bedroom every once in a while because I invited him in a LONG time ago...but yeah, I'm not Joss...**

**By the way, thank you for all of those who reviewed! It really means a lot when you guys do that! I appreciate it more than is normally recommended by my psychiatrist, but who gives a damn? Keep them coming!**

**B U F F Y**

I was excited throughout school today. There were cheerleading tryouts after school today at Sunnydale High and Buffy told us yesterday she was planning on going all out. I think she would do pretty well, though. She's definitely more athletic and flexible than people seem to give her credit for. Well, normal people, anyway. However, the friends in our little circle are very aware of her capabilities. Hell, she _did_ practically save the world from the apocalypse last week. Maybe she could mention that sometime during her tryouts...

"So, have you guys seen pompom-esque Buffy yet?" I asked two of my new friends as I put away some papers and a textbook into my locker.

"No, not yet. I'm sure she'll do great, though. I mean, can you imagine?" Willow responded as she closed her locker and led us down the hall toward the gym where the auditions were being held.

"Oh, yes...I can imagine..." Xander stated lustfully as his mind went to more intimate thoughts of our blonde friend. I sighed to myself as I looked over at the brief look of hurt that Willow had on her face before it formed back into a friendly smile.

"I might just have to tell her you mentioned that..." I teased, bumping Willow's arm seeing if she wanted to join in.

"Better yet, I can have her listen to the tape recorder I have in my backpack of this entire conversation." Willow joked, her face unwilling to show Xander if she were only joking or if she were serious, but Xander knew her better.

"Well, then, I might just have to tie that tape recorder to some lethal explosives and see what it leads to..."

"Great idea, except I already wrapped it in a titanium casing for this exact moment...Sorry, Xander." I replied with a fake wince, causing Willow to smile a little bit wider.

"Curses..." One thing I thought was adorable is that during our shared witty banner, he always seemed to need the last word in. Most people would find it annoying, but I found it cute and kind of funny.

"Hey, Buffy. Loving those poms. They suit you, somehow." I said as we ran into Buffy going down the hall. A smiling Willow stood at my side while stood by Buffy's, silently agreeing with my opinion.

"They do, don't they?" The Slayer responded as she pressed the flashy spheres of short streamers against each other for further emphasis.

We entered through the metal door and into the naturally-lit gym. There were already about twenty other girls here, already practicing for their chance in the gleaming spotlight as one of Sunnydale High's finest.

"I'm guessing Giles didn't approve?" Willow asked as we walked over to the stands on the other side of the gym as her red hair lit up passing over the light entering through the window. Buffy's did as well, but it gave off more of a soft glow.

"Not exactly. You know how stuffy Englishman can get. I mean, we haven't seen a vampire in over a week. I'm thinking we need to get him a girlfriend or something..." Buffy's voice was somewhat in the background as I gazed over all of the female students in the room. Not in a sexual attraction kind of way, obviously. Just looking at Buffy's "competition."

"Cheerleading is kind of twisted. I mean, spelling words out with your arms for, not only attention, but for the other team to lose...kind of weird when you think about it..." I looked back over at the two girls. Buffy just looked at me with fake annoyance. "I mean...I'm sure you'll redefine it for me once you're up there...go Razorbacks...!" I exclaimed halfheartedly, trying to recover from what I said with a weak smile on my face.

"I don't know why people don't think about cheerleading more seriously." Xander started as he looked over every single female body in the room. "But, look at these girls giving it their all like this..." His voice trailed off at the girl in front of us with one foot in front of her and one foot behind her, doing a full-split over two cheap metallic chairs. "Oooh...stretchy..." he let out as his eyes wandered over the exposed legs of said girl.

I sighed slightly at this, only another reminder that I would never live up to what Xander wanted. I felt eyes on me so I looked around the room but couldn't find who it was. I must be hallucinating or something. Maybe vampires have the ability to make people hallucinate...oh, wait. It's daylight. Scratch that theory.

"Now...where was I again?" Xander asked us as Buffy walked over toward the edge of the bleachers. Xander's never left the girl's body.

"You were pretending that scantily-clad girls in revealing postures was, in fact, a spiritual experience." Willow informed him in a joking manner, waiting on him to regain his composure.

"And you probably were about to go on to say how every woman with the right body should be just as displeased with clothing as these potential cheerleaders are, if not more so." I interjected before Xander had a chance to reply.

"See? He's gettin' it!" Xander exclaimed happily as he clasped my shoulder, which, in turn, had my shoulder brush up against his chest, causing me to blush. I hope it wasn't visible to anybody, though. I quickly thought of funny things happening to other people and quickly felt the blood leave my face. I felt a pair of eyes on me scanned the room for anybody looking even close to this direction. Finally, my gaze landed on Willow, and as soon as she realized I spotted her, she looked away. Weird...Hope she didn't notice my facial reaction to Xander's side-hug.

"Oh, hey. For good luck." Xander said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out some sort of shiny object and placing it in Buffy's hands.

"What's this?" Buffy asked curiously as she looked over the object.

"What's that?" Willow asked, worry evident in her tone.

"Oh crap..." My whisper wasn't seemingly heard by anybody, which was good because I let those words slip out of my mouth before I could stop them. Although, it did keep the same rhythm of response as the two girls beside me had going.

"Oh, how sweet." Buffy said as her fingers grasped the two silver chains that connected a tag of a bracelet in between them. "'Yours always'..." Buffy read out loud, causing Willow next to me to shift uncomfortably. Poor Willow. She's his best friend and doesn't even see her that way. It's way worse for her than it is for me, so of course she has my advice and/or comforting whenever she needs it.

"I-i-it came that way, really. They all said that..." Xander rushed out, realizing from Buffy's confused tone that it might not have been the best thing to have as an inscription on it.

"Look at Amber." Cordelia started from next to Willow. She was gesturing toward the 'stretchy' girl from earlier who, now, was in the center of the gymnasium ready to begin her routine, once again stretching out her bottom limbs. This time, she just grabbed a leg and lifted it like it she was able to do it before she could walk. "Who does she think she is; a Laker girl?"

"I heard she turned them down..." Willow said. Actually, I had heard that rumor, too. Ironically enough, it was from the same girls I told off last week in class. Whoops...

"Amy!" Willow called out to the blonde girl from a few feet away. She had on a friendly smile for the girl, obviously a friend. Amy sported the same grin that Willow had, just as friendly as hers. Her hair was pulled up into a loose ponytail with just enough tightness to keep the hair out of her face.

She walked over to us as the captain of the squad called for everybody to get off of the floor so that Amber could begin. Willow proceeded to interact with the other girl, but I kept noticing Xander fidget a little and occasionally glance down at Buffy. Of course, he must have been thinking if the bracelet was the best idea. He was probably also second guessing if it was too extravagant for the occasion, or maybe not extravagant enough. Yeah, that must be it because his eyes grew more nervous with every passing second.

At that moment, upbeat music played from the cheap boombox the mascot had provided the squad with to play the music selections of each girl. A few spins and a couple of cartwheels made for a great tryout, if you ask me. She did look like she knew what she was doing. I think I even saw her throw in some jazz hands. That was brace of her.

I heard Buffy and Amy talk about something but it was all kind of lost because my mind was focused on the performance for some reason I would never be able to look back on and tell you why. Amber picked proceeded to pick up the gold pompoms and add a few more dance moves with more focus on hand movement. The only thing that pulled me out of my trance was Xander's hand fidgeting. He obviously wasn't as into the performance as everybody else in the room was.

He kept motioning something with his hands, probably having an internal argument with himself if he should have picked out a necklace instead.

I looked up to see wisps of smoke escape Amy's pompoms. I squinted my eyes to see if maybe they were just my contact lenses. To my surprise, they weren't.

"Is that some sort of fancy effect, or...?" I said meekly, unable to take my eyes off Amber for an entirely different reason than before. The smoke got more and more noticeable as the moments went on, although Amber seemed to be unaware of it all. "Umm...guys...?"

"That girl's on fire!" I heard Willow exclaim. A second later, I saw Buffy rush away from the group as I kept looking at Amber in shock as she continued to flail her arms around as the flames continued to grow. My feet were glued to the ground and I couldn't do anything. A few seconds later, Buffy returned into my vision with a flag and patted the fire out, leaving a traumatized Amber whimpering on the gymnasium floor.

**B U F F Y**

"That girl _would_ ruin my tryout. I mean, who does she think she _is_? I had my routine perfect and she just goes and does that! I'm sure if I light my arms on fire, I would make even more of an impact!" I heard Cordelia complain to her minions, only to agree with every word she spoke, mindlessly nodding along.

"Wanna test out that theory?" I muttered to myself, or at least I thought it was only to myself before Willow playfully elbowed me into my ribs. "What? It'd be a great chem project to test out..." I explained sarcastically to her as the four of us walked down the halls toward the library.

"At least the ambulance got here quickly." Xander stated, his hands buried deep within his pockets as we entered the double doors of the library. Giles was seen behind a stack of books that he was checking off, probably library books that had been returned. Hmm, maybe the book I checked out is in there...

"Get a load of this, Giles. We've got ourselves Sunnydale's first superhero on our hands." Informing him quickly without warning seemed like the best thing to do for the funniest British reaction. And it was.

He almost let a book slip out of his hands before he attempted to respond with a complete sentence. "I-I-I'm sorry...a what now?" he asked in confusion as we all made our way to the main table to sit down and soak it all in, ready to put it up for discussion.

"Look, I've slayed vampires for quite some time now and along the way, I've seen my share of freaky things, but a girl's hand randomly set on fire until well-done...? That's definitely not something you see everyday..."

"I imagine not." Giles interjected as he rounded the corner from a much more private book section with it's very own lock and chain. "Spontaneous human combustion is rather rare and usually, the case is that all that's left is a pile of ashes."

"That's all that would have been left if it wasn't for Buffy." Willow explained, trying to paint some sort of image in Giles' head, seeing as he was only hearing about it and not seeing it for himself.

"Big question on everybody's mind; what the hell happened?" I asked, wanting to get to the point on why it happened to Amber.

"Thank you for your...mildly aggressive question, Eric. But there are many different possibilities. Some, not even being of the supernatural sorts." Giles teased as he continued to flip through the pages of one of the smaller books from his collection.

"So, we have no idea what caused this...that's comforting..." Xander muttered, a look of discomfort on his face as he stared at nothing specific on the table. I smirked at his comment slightly before settling my hand on top of the desk idly.

"But that's the thrill of living on the Hellmouth. There's a veritable cornucopia of fiends, and devils, a-a-a-and ghouls to inherit." Yup, that made my smirk drop. Crazy British man...The four of us seemed to be thinking the same thing as we all looked at Giles in disbelief. "Pardon me for finding the glass half-full." he stated defensively as he shut the book and placed it on the table.

"So, why Amber?" Buffy asked Giles as he continued to pace around us, trying to figure out some sort of explanation to it all.

"In most cases, the person who combusts is terribly angry or upset." Giles informed us, looking at the reaction on our faces to see if we thought of any reason she might have had.

"So, girl plus fire go boom because...she didn't like her flawless routine...?" I attempted to make sense of it, but there really was no way.

"Eric's right. There didn't seem to be any sort of rage thing going on." Willow seconded as she turned around in her seat to face Giles.

"Like I said; it's only one of many theories." Giles was now digging through his books again as he replied, his hands swiftly dragging over the covers of them as he pushed them aside deciding they would be of no use.

"Maybe she _is_ a superhero. Kind of like The Human Torch only it...hurts..." Xander replied, only to find out that his idea didn't really make much sense. But hell, I'd agree with him if Amber didn't seem so surprised by it.

"I gotta get the skinny on Amber. See if she's had any other colorful episodes before." Buffy said as she got up from her seat.

"That would mean hacking into the school's computer system, right?" Willow mentioned before getting up from her seat in a giddy mood. "Finally. Something I can do."

"I can ask around the school about her." Xander offered as the three of us got up from our seats to join Buffy.

"I can help Giles look for more possible theories on what happened during my next free period." I added as I slung my backpack onto my right shoulder.

"Do you _ever_ have to go to class?" Xander asked me incredulously as he looked over at me.

"It's called being a kiss-ass; does wonders for research time. Just not so much my reputation..." I commented as I continued adjusting the black strap slung onto my shoulder.

"Guys, you don't have to get involved." Buffy said simply as she stopped in her tracks to look back at us.

"What do you mean? We're a team...right?" Xander responded, his tone sounding somewhat rejected and confused, much like I felt at Buffy's comment.

"Yeah," Willow added on, trying to get Buffy on board with us helping out. "You're the Slayer and we're, like, your Slayerettes."

"It's good to know you didn't pick a more effeminate name for us." I teased, causing her to elbow me in my rib cage much like she did earlier, only harder.

"I just don't want you guys in any danger." Buffy said softly, worry evident in her voice.

Xander proceeded to scoff softly. "I laugh in the face of danger. Then, I hide until it goes away..."

"Okay...just...walk softly, at least until we know more..." Buffy warned as she continued to stand with us with Giles already getting a head start on all the research behind us.

"Hey, Giles? What if Amber isn't the one causing all of this?" Willow asked suddenly, looking slightly deep in thought. Of course, it wasn't enough to tune out Giles' reply.

"Well, then we find out who or what is and, uh, deal with it accordingly." he put simply before getting back to the text he had in his hands.

**B U F F Y**

Luckily, nothing else suddenly caught fire on the way home. I got to my house and went straight for my computer. As it started up, I put my things away and got out a couple of terms I had Giles scribble down for me before I left. Although, they weren't so much scribbles as they were fancy, perfectly-written words...in cursive.

A few hours later, all I came up with were sites referring to Xander's previous theory and a couple of pictures of drunken rednecks setting themselves on fire with gasoline and a lighter. Of course, those led to grotesque pictures of the aftermath of said idiotic acts.

I decided it was time to give up for the moment so that I could make dinner for my mom for when she gets home, but not before I opened my window, slightly hoping Angel came back to visit sometime soon. I did it every night this past week, but that didn't mean he ever came.

I sighed to myself and made my way to the kitchen to make some of my mom's favorite stir fry. Alongside some white rice, I fixed a plate for her and set it in the microwave, waiting for her arrival. I made myself a plate and headed for my room to continue my research.

A few minutes in, I was visited by a surprise creature. A butterfly perched onto my windowsill. I smiled to it kindly as if it cared how I felt about it being there.

"Smells good." a voice called out from the other side of the window, taking me completely off-guard.

Once I was done composing myself, I replied to him. "Ah, if it isn't Angel, my mystery man." I started, gesturing toward him in emphasis. "How goes it, Creepy?" I teased as I used my tongue to pick at the rice caught in my teeth.

"What'd you make?" he asked curiously as he eyed my bowl of chicken and vegetables.

"Stir fry," I answered plainly before baiting him for some answers. "You know, I'd invite you in, but I don't know if that's a good idea or not..." Come on, Angel. Just give me some sort of information.

His eyes showed a level of amusement before he responded. "No, thanks. Not hungry." he smirked slyly, obviously realizing what I was getting at. Damn it...

"Then why, pray tell, are you looking into an open window and having a conversation with a guy who's just trying to enjoy a nice meal?" I asked him, wondering why he would go here and not just knock on my front door.

"Just seeing how your mother's garden is going. I see the petunias are coming in nicely." he teased, once again avoiding a direct response. That didn't stop me from cracking a smile at our joke from the last time he was here.

"No, really. Why are you here?" a grin still on my face, unfazed by my own question.

"I heard about the human bonfire at your school today." he finally replied, humor lost from his tone.

"...There it is..." I responded, my lips pursing in confirmation that yes, he did in fact know of the abnormal. Although, I should have guessed last time he was here. It's just that he was so vague that it was difficult to know what he meant, exactly.

"Did you come up with anything good?" I sighed as I realized that our pleasantries had come to an end, if that's what they were. I still wasn't sure.

"Not unless you're a comic book fan." I said as I plopped down into my computer chair and scrolled down yet another page of useless websites.

"No, thanks. I'm more of a novel enthusiast." he kidded again with a wide grin on his face, only making me smile as well.

"Well, that's one thing we have in common. Then again, we still have our differences." I began, pushing my computer chair back and standing up, stepping closer to the window, or rather, closer to Angel. "Like, I love the color purple and you, oh, I don't know, love to avoid certain subjects. Huh, look at that. It's like yin and yang." I had to end up trying to get back to the subject of a certain crispy cheerleader.

"Relax, Cheeky. I'm only trying to help." the mysterious guy defended, putting his hands up in defeat.

"Well, you're starting to agitate my new buddy over there, so maybe we should continue." I replied, quickly glancing over to the butterfly still resting in the same spot it landed on.

"Alright, if that's what he wants." His small smile was welcomed. It was friendly and, dare I say it, kind of adorable. But as soon as it was on, it came off. "I'm thinking, maybe, you're searching for the wrong topics." he vaguely informed me, causing me to roll my eyes.

"_Please_ tell me you brought me a decoder ring for all of these cryptic messages." I teased once more as I crossed my arms over my chest. He only smirked at my response. "How did you even find out about her?"

"I have my sources."

"Again with the vague. No surprises there..." I muttered as I took another step over to Angel. "Are you a part of what caused this or something, because it just seems like-"

"Why do you seem to think I'm evil? I'm not." he interjected defensively, my guard lowering down just a tad bit.

"How am I supposed to know for sure?" I asked him, hoping he would give me a reason to believe him.

"Guess you'll just have to take my word." And with that, he turned around and left. Although, I couldn't help but smirk. Why was this guy coming to me? Not only that but _who_ is this guy coming to me?

**B U F F Y**

The next day passed by with no change whatsoever. They redid the tryouts because, _apparently_, it was very crucial to ignore the girl in the hospital. Half-expecting Buffy to inform us of another cheerleader-meets-fire ordeal, she just walked out of the gym with her head held high. Amy's head, however, seemed less confident.

Willow and I were walking down the halls and found Amy about to have a breakdown as she rushed away from Buffy.

"What was all that about?" I asked, genuinely curious on whether or not she was okay. I mean, she seemed nice enough, so why wouldn't I be?

"No, she's wigging about her mom, the cheer queen back when." Buffy said, staring into the cheerleading display they had in the hallway. There was a gold trophy of a cheerleader and a picture of the cheerleader that won. My guess is that it was Amy's mom. It was awhile back before anybody had won it again, so I'm sure Amy felt the pressure.

Willow seemed the most worried for Amy, though. After all, they were friends once upon a time. "Yeah, her mom's kinda-"

"Nazi-like?" Buffy said, half serious and half teasing.

"_Mein Kampf _does seem to be on her reading list." I retorted as we started walking back down the hallway.

"If she gains an _ounce_, she padlocks the fridge and won't eat anything but broth."

"Any word on Amber?" Buffy asked curiously, hugging her textbook tight with her arms crossed over it.

"Only stories of drunken frat boys—don't ask..." I informed them them, looking over at Willow hoping she might have found something.

"Not much on my part, either." Willow started as she fiddled with her hands nervously. "Amber got caught for smoking once. Uhh, regular smoking. Like, with cigarettes..."

"Not cursed cigarettes where the victims would feel the true wrath of tobacco?" I asked teasingly. Although, I couldn't help but feel as though it were a possibility in this new discovered part of the world.

"Afraid not. Just your regular 'I will kill you in the long-term' type." Willow started chuckling lightly to herself and both Buffy and I looked at her as though she were having an acid trip. "I'm just remembering that when Amy's mom used to go on a broth-kick, Amy would cover to my house and we would stuff our faces with brownies."

"What kind of broth?" I asked absentmindedly. Yeah, it was a stupid question that slipped through my lips before I had a chance to drag it back in. "Yeah...l-let's pretend I never asked that..." They both just playfully rolled there eyes and we kept on strolling down the hall of other students waiting for that lunch bell to ring so that we could find out about the results to the auditions. Two more periods to go.

**B U F F Y**

By the time lunch came around, I caught up to Willow and Xander rather quickly since their class was just across the hall from mine. We made our way out to the quad where they were going to post the results. Already, there was a crowd forming around the bulletin board.

"We told Buffy about Amber." Willow spoke up softly, looking up at Xander with friendly eyes.

"Cool. So, was she wearing it?" Xander asked, a hint of hope in his voice. Both Willow and I gave him a quizzical before he elaborated on what he said. "The bracelet; she was wearing it, right? It's pretty much like we're going out." Xander explained with a goofy grin, the grin that I've grown more and more comfortable with each day.

"Except with the hugging, and kissing, and her knowing about." Willow added playfully as we stopped to converse about it.

"And the flirting, and the dating, and the calling." I continued, counting of with my fingers for emphasis.

"Hey, I call, alright?" Xander defended, his brown orbs now on me as I continued our friend's witty banter. It was kind of our group's thing.

"Sorry, didn't realize you call and have conversations with her..." I apologized playfully, although I knew what was coming up.

"Hey, I call...alright?" he said once more with less emphasis than the the few moments ago that he said. "So, I should ask her out, right?" Xander asked, his attempt at getting back to his most requested subject to talk about; Buffy.

"You won't know until you ask." Willow told him, a bit of gloom in her tone, but Xander didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, girls like confidence, man." I advised him as we continued to walk over to the large group of teenage girls hovering over one board. I could already see Buffy and Amy in the distance.

"See? That's why you guys are so awesome. You're like my guy friends that know about girl stuff." While Willow was more focused on the word 'guy,' I kept my mind on the word 'friend.' Sure, I would never act on my feelings, but it still hurt to be called 'just a friend.' All in all, I sucked it up and patted Willow's shoulder surreptitiously behind Xander to try and comfort her. She gave me a weak smile before returning her gaze back to the concrete path we were walking along.

"Oh, look. The list!" Xander exclaimed as he rushed over toward the group of both cheering and sobbing girls.

"He'll realize it one day, don't worry." I whispered to the bright eyed friend of mine before we both caught up to Buffy and Amy standing in the back of the crowd, waiting for it to die down. However, Xander dove in a saved the day to find out the results more quickly.

"Ow! One of those girls hit me _really_ hard. We should test for steroids..." Xander was now cradling his left shoulder softly. My guess was that he stepped on some girl's foot and she socked him in return, but I wasn't going to say anything. "Anyways, good news. Buffy, you're first alternate and Amy, you're third. I think this calls for a romant-" Amy rushed away, emotional from not having made it to the main squad.

"Xander...Alternates are the ones that didn't make the team. They only fill in for the ones who did." Willow explained, trying to let Xander know why Amy left. He gestured disbelievingly as he realized that almost asking Buffy out on a first date wasn't the best way to break it to Amy. Buffy didn't seem to mind, though.

"Excuse me." Buffy said as she rushed to catch up with the other blonde girl who looked like she was having a freakout.

"Nice one, Xander. Not only did you fail to ask Buffy out, you made a girl have a breakdown in the process. And to think it couldn't be done..." I teased as we looked on at the two blonde girls talking to each other.

**B U F F Y**

The rest of my classes passed by in the usual manner; pointless lessons from teachers that only a quarter of the class were paying attention to. As the final bell rang, I sighed in relief as I gathered my stuff and headed for my locker to put all the stuff I didn't need to keep inside of it overnight.

I made my way to library to see if there were some sort of special codex or something that would point us in the direction of Amber's flame-grilled forearms. I entered through the double doors for what seemed like the hundredth time since I met Giles, but it wasn't annoying. I liked the library. I liked to read, so why wouldn't I?

Giles was sitting down behind the counter as he looked over some old text that I knew he wasn't just reading for pleasure. "Hey, Giles. Anything?" I asked curiously as I sat my backpack down behind the counter.

"You know, you aren't supposed to be back here..." he groaned as he continued to read on with what seemed to be a book in a different language entirely.

"Well, I'm not supposed to witness a potential Laker girl suddenly catch on fire like a molotov cocktail, either, but that ship has sailed." I teased as I looked over the illustrations in the book. Off to the right corner there was a disfigured being that seemed to be a cross between a bug and a dragon shooting fireballs from a hole its neck...yeah, that's pleasant. Must have had some of those same cigarettes Amber had.

"Yes, well...any potential theories?" he asked as he readjusted his glasses and closed the book in front of him and turning to face me.

"Not unless you count being bitten by a radioactive spider." I mentioned as I made my way to the backroom in search of any random piece of text that could help us. "Which is why..." I began as I grabbed an dusty book with the title 'Hellfire' on it in old English lettering. "I have decided to devote my afternoon to some hardcore researching with my favorite British Watcher slash librarian." I explained as I walked back over to the counter and opened the raggedy literature up to its first page and leaned over it as I began reading the text that was sprawled all across the page.

"You do know you could have just had me continue doing it, correct?" he asked as he returned his book back onto a bookshelf in the locked off portion of the library. I continued to read on next to Giles peacefully, each one of us going to the grab some sort of new source of information every now and again.

Reading through all of these different things made me go back to last night and what Angel had told me. _I'm thinking, maybe, you're searching for the wrong topics_. After a few more minutes of pondering what he was referring to look out for, my mind would only go back to how funny he was and how attractive he was. But..._who_? I mean, I don't even _know_ him. But how do I know if it's even okay to talk to him? Oh, right. I have the walking demon encyclopedia standing right next to me.

"Hey...Giles?" I started hesitantly, my hand still clutching a passage I had just finished reading. He looked up from his own with curious eyes underneath his lenses. "A-a-are there any more volumes of this?" I chickened out. Damn it. He shook his head after a few seconds of thinking with a soft 'no, I don't believe there is.' With that, I put the book back and slung my bag over my shoulder. "Guess that means I'm out of here. Sun will be down soon and I don't want to be caught off-guard." He gave me a faint smile and a quick goodbye before I made my way off of the school campus.

**B U F F Y**

Making my way inside of my house, I noticed a dust bunny in the corner lift up slightly as the breeze coming in from the open door hit it. Yup, time to clean.

I changed into more appropriate and comfortable clothing for cleaning. In this case, grey sweats and a navy blue muscle shirt. I grabbed all of the supplies from under the sink and hallway closet and I got to work.

By the time I was all done, it was close to ten in the evening. God, I've been cleaning for four hours! I would have been done sooner if the vacuum hadn't gone on the fritz and stopped working. I had to break out the tools to fix it and everything! Luckily for me, I got it to work again.

I wasn't very hungry, so I just made a small bowl of pasta for my mom and made my way to the bathroom for a quick shower and then some homework.

**B U F F Y**

Like every other night that passed by, Angel hadn't stopped by. For whatever reason, I was not only expecting him, but I also wanted him there. His presence was somewhat comforting and friendly, and its something I didn't really feel in this house anymore. It was nice to finally feel that way under my own roof.

As soon as my head against the pillow, I fell straight to sleep in the blanket of warmth that was snuggled around my body.

In the morning, the school was always bustling with bright-eyed and bushy-tailed students that didn't seem to mind being up so early. I, on the other hand, am _not_ a morning person. I'd much rather be up all night and sleep all day, but school made that rather hard. My body kind of already adjusted to only getting about five or six hours of sleep a night during the weekdays. So every once in a while, if I weren't particularly tired, I would wait up for my mom and just have a conversation with her as she finished whatever meal I had previously prepared for her for that night. It was mostly just a matter to catch up. But the past week, I've been keeping most of everything a secret. Therefore, our conversations got shorter and less informative.

As I entered the hallways, the bell rang, so there was no time for pleasantries with friends this time around.

Class was easy enough, so there was no point in actually paying attention. The teacher droned on and on about how to set up exponents for certain theories. To be honest, it was all pretty simple for me. I felt way too smart in this class because everybody else didn't really seem to get it.

I played with my only no. 2 pencil on hand, rotating it in between my slender fingers. I looked out the window for a change of scenery, but there wasn't much of anything to look at. The campus was barren, so there was nobody to even people-watch at. God, could this day get anymore boring? I'm practically bored to tears waiting for that damn bell to go off so I can at least go hang around Giles.

After thirty more grueling minutes of me wanting to stab myself in the eyes with the pencil I was holding just so that I would have something to do, the bell chimed. Maybe I'll go stop by to meet Willow at her locker and see if she's okay after yesterday's casually aggressive actions by her best friend.

To my surprise, Xander was there with her. Although, I'm not sure why I was so surprised. I mean, like I said. They _are_ best friends.

"Hey guys." I greeted as leaned my shoulders against the metal lockers. Willow and Xander both greeted me with friendly smiles with equally friendly eyes, although Willow's smile was a little bit different because she was teething on a white and blue pen absentmindedly.

Although, behind them was a sight to see. Cordelia was sluggishly walking along the hallway, her mouth slightly agape and her dark eyes giving off a thousand mile stare.

"See? _That_ is what happens when you get zonked out from asphyxiation due to too much hairspray." I gestured toward the living zombie behind them as she continued to roam in this direction with a blank stare. They both looked at her, but when Willow turned her head, Xander kept his gaze.

"Cordelia! You haven't been mean to me all day. Is it something I've done?" Xander asked as he shoved his hands into his pockets and continued to look at the queen bee of Sunnydale. "Okay, see how she has no clue I'm a mammal, much less a human being?"

"Not unless I squint really hard." I retorted as Willow closed her locker and we were on our way down the hall.

"This is the 'Invisible Man Syndrome.' A blessing in Cordelia's case, a curse in Buffy's..." he continued as he stared off down the hallway at the oddly silent girl.

"You're not invisible to Buffy." Willow's gaze looked up at Xander, but he didn't respond to it specifically as much as continue on with his little rant.

"It's worse. I'm just a part of the scenery, like an old shoe or a rug that you walk on every day but you don't really see it." I smirked at the idea of a Xander-shaped rug lying on the ground. I made it back to reality just in time to hear Willow join in on the infamous Xander babble.

"Like a pen! It's all chewed up and you should throw it away but you don't. Not because you like it so much, more that you're just used to-"

"Will, yeah! That is the point. You don't have to drive it through my head like a railroad spike..." At this, both Willow and I smirked playfully in front of us at the realization of how far this conversation really has gone. "I'm gonna take your advice and not beat around the bush."

A look of panic quickly overcame Willow's usual innocent and child-like features. "Or I could be wrong! Maybe you should...beat around the bush more!" She tried to salvage what she had told him yesterday and I felt bad, so I egged it on.

"Yeah, beating bush can be fun when you have your buddies next to yo—okay, that went in a totally different direction than I was planning on..." I looked down in embarrassment in when I realized that my words took a turn for the worse.

"As 'fun' as you make it sound, Eric, I gotta be a man and ask her out." Willow's face dropped at this, knowing there was no sense in persuading Xander once he's already made up his mind. I'm sure mine would have, too, if I didn't feel for Willow so much. I sighed to myself in a defeated tone as Xander continued explaining why he shouldn't beat bush with his friends. "You know, I gotta stop...giving her ID bracelets, uhh subtle innuendos, taking Polaroids outside her bedroom window late at night..." I shifted my eyes from my feet pacing to Xander to give him a weird look, a smirk creeping up behind my pursed lips. "That last part was a joke...to relieve the tension because here she comes." Xander rushed out as he directed our attention to Buffy turning a corner and glancing at Cordelia as she made her way in our direction.

"Okay, into battle I go...would you ask her out for me?" Xander panicked swiftly and grabbed for Willow's shoulders, shocking her a bit as she jumped in his grasp. "No...man...me battle." Willow's look calmed him down enough to get it together. He straightened out his black sweater and waited for Buffy to catch up with us.

"Buffy!" Xander greeted the first alternate (she was robbed of that position on the squad, I promise) but she didn't seem to realize the urgency in his voice as she looked back curiously at Cordelia rummaging around through padlocks on the lockers. All Willow and I could do was look on as he continued to hit on our mutual friend. "Would you like to, uh-"

"Is that even Cordelia's locker?" Buffy interrupted before Xander could finish as she whipped her head back at where Cordelia was now trying to open a random locker, causing it to rattle softly in rejection.

"Huh? Oh, uh, I don't know...what I'm saying is accompany me Friday ni-"

"Xander, I have to, umm...we can make this up later. You don't mind, do you?" Buffy smiled as she passed Xander her textbook and rushed over to follow Cordelia. Xander proceeded to make a bomb sound effect and I patted him on the back for comfort. I couldn't help but feel the heat clinging to my fingertips, tingling slightly. Either my hand was asleep for exactly one second before, or I have it bad. And from the looks of a somewhat relieved Willow next to me, so did she.

**B U F F Y**

After the final class before lunch, I made my way to meet Xander at his locker in hopes of talking him out of trying things with Buffy. I would say something about it being too soon or something, as long as it worked.

"Hey, Xander." I greeted as he finished putting his books in the locker, quickly shutting it.

"Oh, hey Eric." he said disinterestedly as he looked behind me. Ouch. I turned back and saw Buffy heading toward us with Willow walking at her side with equal amount of speed. They both looked like they had an urgent message. But of course, Buffy distracted Xander again. I sighed to myself softly before I turned around to face the two completely.

"Emergency meeting." Buffy rushed past us as she said it, obviously heading for the library. Willow slowed down to let us catch up with her.

"Did Amber have another meltdown? I asked curiously, matching Buffy's pace as we rounded a corner.

"Nope. This is another kind of unexplained malarkey." she explained as we continued on into the library, calling Giles' attention. "What do you got on blind white eyes?" Buffy asked bluntly and to-the-point as Giles just looked at her in a confused manner. I sported an equally confused look as the four of us took seats around what I came to know as both the 'Trouble Table,' and 'Rigorous Research Area,' depending on the time of day.

"Wha-? Oh dear...why didn't I see this before?" Giles asked himself as he took off his glasses and cleaned them off before putting them back on. "Witchcraft." he stated simply. "Blinding and disorienting your enemy i-i-is classic." Damn it. I pushed aside any paganism books while doing research thinking it wouldn't do me any good. Wait...was this what Ange-

"First vampires, now witches...no wonder you can still afford a house in Sunnydale." Xander's response caused me to pull away from my own thoughts and back to reality to discuss...witches...

"Why would someone wish to harm Cordelia?" Giles asked the room as he placed his hands on top of the table we were sitting at.

"Maybe because they met her...?" Willow said, but it came out more as a question than an answer. "Did I say that?" she asked rhetorically, a sheepish look on her face. I could only grin at her in response.

"Why would that even be asked? You have met her, Giles, right?" I pushed on, supporting Willow's statement.

There was a long pause before he answered, a glint of clarity in his eyes as he did. "...Yes, well...what about setting Amber ablaze?"

"They're both cheerleaders." Buffy stated plainly, explaining what they had in common with what happened to them.

"Someone doesn't like cheerleading." Giles was now looking down at Buffy as she explained.

"Or someone who likes it too much." It took us all a second to figure out what she was going on about. Wait...oh crap...

"Amy!" Willow exclaimed before I had the chance to do it myself. "And to think I had brownie pig-outs with her..."

"I had a feeling she would do just about anything to get her mom's dreams to come true." Buffy went on, her eyes scanning over all of us for our reactions to see if her theory made sense.

"...they even had little nuts on top..." Willow said softly as she stared down at the table, lost in her own thoughts, just as I was not long ago.

"Let me get this right...this girl is casting horrible and disfiguring spells so she could become a cheerleader...?" Giles asked us, making it sound preposterous. And when he said it like that, I almost agreed with him.

"...there was milk involved..." I blinked at Willow before proceeding to snap her out of it.

"Willow, honey...hi. Umm...evil green-with-envy spell casting is afoot, so..." I pointed toward both Giles and Buffy so she could concentrate on what they were saying. "You can vent all about the chocolatey square goodness later; I promise." I gave her a quick smile, receiving one in response before they continued the discussion.

"I think you're underestimating the amount of pressure a parent can lay on you." Buffy started fiddling with her fingers nervously as she went on. "If you're not a picture-perfect carbon copy, they start to wig."

Xander looked up, his mind seeming to form a plan. "Look, we still have to stop Amy. We should grab her and-"

"I think we should be sure she's the witch before we arouse her suspicions, yes. She's capable of some very unpleasant things." Giles explained to us, causing Xander to dejectedly slump back down in his chair. I wish I could comfort him, but that would just be uncomfortable for him, therefore it loses its point of doing the comforting part...

"Okay, so you're a teenage girl and you're desperate to please mommy dearest by sporting some spanks and waving around pom-poms, so you turn to witchcraft...what's the first thing you're gonna do?" Buffy looked stumped as she finished her question, hoping to find some enlightenment from her friends.

"Check out the books on witchcraft!" Willow then proceeded to get up and head to the closest computer with Buffy and I following close behind. Although, for some reason, Xander started stammering.

"U-u-uh, no! That would be the last thing you would do. You don't want to leave a paper trail. Forget that."

"It'll just take a minute." Willow said determinedly, clacking away on the keyboard to pull up the checkout history of the school library.

"We don't have a minute! Cheerleaders are in danger. _Buffy_ is in danger. We can't waste anymore time. Come on, we gotta get you to a safehouse..." Xander yammered on, attempting to drag Buffy away from the computer screen. That's when I saw his name pixelated on the computer screen.

"Xander..." Willow then proceeded to read off the title of the witchcraft books and noted that they were checked out by one 'Alexander Harris.'

"Well, somebody's got some 'splainin' to do..." I teased as I crossed my arms in exaggeration, Buffy following suit.

"Alright, alright. It's not what you think..." he began, waving his hand in defense.

"Oh, so you _don't _like to look at the semi-nude engravings...?" Willow asked, although she already knew the answer to that one. We all did, for that matter.

"Oh, well...I guess it _is_ what you think..." Xander said nervously, his hands buried deep in his pockets in hopes it would hold some sort of comfort. I smirked at him before Giles spoke up from the other side of the library.

"We have to find a conclusive test." He then went through one of the books that was laying on the table. "Yes, this should do it." He listed off a couple of different things that it would need. Willow pointed it out that they could all be found in the science lab. "It says here that within the forty-eight hours the spell is cast, the witch's skin should turn blue."

"And we all have chemistry with Amy, so we can do it then." Willow stated excitedly. Who can blame her, though. It's our first encounter of the broom-flying kind. I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited myself.

"I don't," I began, walking over to where I set my backpack and taking out some homework. "_but, _I have some homework I was planning on doing here, anyway." I pulled out the green slip from my pocket that gave me permission to be here. "But you kiddies have fun on your witch hunt." I grinned softly as I sat down in my previous chair. "Just fill me in before next period. I'll meet you guys outside of class." They agreed and made it on their way to class as the bell chimed, signalling that lunch was over.

**B U F F Y**

The period spent here went by pretty quickly. I spent my time doing mathematical equations I couldn't get to last night, and Giles spent his time looking through stacks of books whilst murmuring to himself something in British.

A few minutes before the bell rang, I gathered my stuff and told Giles I would give him a heads up before I went to my own class. He dismissed me with another muttered breath of words as he continued focusing on what he was reading. I walked out and headed for the chemistry room.

The bell rang and out they came, worried and confused looks meshed together on their faces.

"Did you see? Amy was freaked out as the rest of us." Xander started the conversation as the four of us grouped together further down the hallway in the opposite direction of where Amy was headed.

"Freaked out about what?" I asked, a little lost in the discussion.

"Deshawn's mouth was no more." He continued, the same exasperated tone he used before.

"...It exploded?"

"It wasn't there." Buffy interjected, her eyes shifting from person to person. "The test was positive, though. She's our Sabrina. I just don't think she realizes what she's doing."

"Well, should we talk to her?" Willow asked, trying to come up with a solution, as we all were.

"I think we should talk to her mother. I wonder if _she_ knows what she's created..." Buffy told us, looking back between the three of us.

"Alright. Bell's gonna ring. I gotta go tell Giles. Maybe he can find some magic mojo to take away her witchy ways." I said before rushing back to the library, which wasn't too far since the campus wasn't all that big in the first place.

"Did it turn blue?" Giles asked me, looking up from the same book I left him with.

I looked around to see if anybody came in while I was gone before answering. "As blue as your eyes." I stated before looking back at the librarian. I took a double-take at what I found out. "Your eyes are _brown_?" I let out a heavy sigh before continuing. "Yeah, it was blue..." I informed him defeatedly, my shoulders slightly slumped. "So, do you need any help with research later on?"

"Not particularly. There's no special charm o-o-or spell that can take away her powers that I know of, so research would prove rather useless at this point."

"So I was wrong about that _and_ your eye color? God, what is my _deal_ today?" I exclaimed as I exited the library and headed to my next class, leaving a confused and slightly dazed librarian back to his studying.

**B U F F Y**

As I exited the school grounds, I saw Amy walking home. Maybe I can finally do my part. I'll follow her. At a safe distance, of course.

Next thing I know, it's ten minutes later and we're still walking. Although, this time, we were in a much wealthier neighborhood. The houses were bigger and older, almost looking as if they were centuries old.

She stopped at one of the creepiest houses on the block. It was surrounded completely by a tall black iron fence, and the matching gate creaked open as she entered. Once she was inside, I rushed over to the edge of the property and walked slowly across the the sidewalk. Through a big set of windows on the first floor, I saw a woman with a dark brown bob and baggy clothing. My guess was that it was her mother. Then, she looked straight at me, her eyes pleading something. Was that...fear? Oh God, what has Amy _done_?

A brief second later, a flash of blonde hair appeared at the window, Amy's face furious. I looked away casually and continued walking, my pace much more swift than it was a few moments ago.

I came home fairly early, considering, which was different for me since I usually hung around the library with Giles for the past week or so. Too bad he didn't need me, I could use something to do. Instead, I just ended up heading straight for my computer and typed a report two weeks before it was due. Yeah, I really need something to do.

I was done in an hour, so that didn't really help me much. I sighed heavily, boredom evident on my face as I sluggishly made my way to my bed and laid down. But of course, that only led to thinking.

A few minutes of random thoughts and it referred back to both Xander _and_ Angel. That's right. Not Xander, not Angel; both of them. I started thinking equally random thoughts, but they were all about them. Like how goofy Xander's grin was when he did his 'Xanter.' Or how Angel's smile was both charming and contagious. Yeah, it went on like that for quite some time.

I ended up waking up a couple of hours later, already becoming dark out. It was starting to get rather hot, so I opened up my window to bring in the cool night breeze.

Okay, this is ridiculous! There has to be _something_ to do.

Making myself some dinner was about as close to doing something as I could do. And since I haven't eaten since...two days ago...? Why the hell am I not hungry?

Spaghetti it is. And after enjoying a hearty bowl, I left the rest to my mother and headed back to my room. I looked over at the clock. Only 7:08.

Maybe I'll call the gang and let them know I have finally have something for tomorrow's meeting. Hopefully, nobody is too enthralled with something else. Before I knew it, I was already dialing Willow's number.

I didn't want to interrupt her if she's busy, but I'm just _so_ bored! It rang three times before she picked up, the clatter of her getting a grip on her phone lightly coming through the receiver of my own phone.

"Hello?" she greeted, her voice uncertain, like she wasn't sure she should even be answering her phone.

"Hey, Willow. It's Eric." My voice was hesitant, hoping it wasn't noticed on the other end of the line.

"_It's Eric_." Willow whispered softly to whomever else was in the room. "Hey, Eric. What are you up to?"

"Just bored." I sighed into the speaker. "Who're you with?" I asked curiously as I walked around my room as far as its cord could take me. Surprisingly, I could make it all the way across the room. Okay, see? That's how bored I am!

"Just trying to get Xander some sort of understanding of the mathematical world."

"And she's failing miserably..." I could hear Xander say through the phone, a smile on my face from hearing his voice.

"Oh, alright. Just wanted to see what the deal was. I'll let you guys get back to it. But meeting at lunch, okay?" She agreed and let Xander know, also. She was even nice enough to call Buffy and let her know. Damn. Three birds, one stone. And I didn't even intend to do that!

"Figure it out yet?" a voice broke through the silence, causing me to jump as I attempted to hang up the phone. Needless to say, it fell to the ground. After I finally placed it on it's base, I turned around to see the same face I was thinking about not 3 hours ago.

"Why don't you come in like a normal person?" I asked curiously, my arms crossing over my chest in amusement. Hesitantly, he climbed through my window rather gracefully and stood by it. "See? Much easier to talk to you in here..." I smirked as I sat on my bed, kind of exhausted from today.

"Yeah, but I can't see your mother's garden from in here..." he teased as he continued to hover close to the window, his gelled hair motionless from the slight breeze that came in through it.

"So, back to your original question; yeah, we did. Why didn't you just tell me before she was a witch?"

"Mostly because I wasn't sure..." Angel explained to me as we both continued to stay at the opposite side of the room from each other. "Partly because it was kind of fun to keep you guessing." he teased, his smirk growing into a grin. It turned my legs into melty lime jello, so it was a good thing I was already sitting down.

I faintly heard the front door open, signaling that my mom was, surprisingly, home early. "Umm...I think I hear my mom. I'll try to be back soon, but feel free to make comfy with my bed. It's very cloud-like; I promise." I offered as I made my way down the hall to greet my mom as she hung up coat.

"Mom?" Silence. That's weird. Must have been my imagination.

Maybe I'll call the gang and see what they're up to. Hopefully, nobody is too enthralled with something else.

I opened the door and was surprised to see Angel sitting on my bad. "Okay...that's different." I commented as I leaned up against the doorway, somewhat taken aback by his sudden appearance.

"What is?" he asked me, his deep vibrato causing me to quiver slightly.

"Seeing you come inside for once. I'm guessing you came in through the window?" He only gave me look of disbelief, causing me to smirk at him. "So, what are you doing here, anyways? Come to finally tell me Amy's a witch? Why didn't you te-"

"I did tell you...over an hour ago when I came to your window...are you...feeling okay?" Angel asked me, genuinely concerned, which is weird because I should be the one worried about him. Why would he think I already talked to him today?

"What are you talking about? It's still seven o' cl-" I glanced over at the clock but quickly looked back. The red light illuminating back at me in a mocking manner. 8:52. "Wait...what?"

**B U F F Y**

Angel and I spent the rest of the night retracing my steps but got absolutely nowhere. After an hour, we just gave up and he left after he, supposedly, repeated what he said to me about how he wasn't sure Amy was a witch, but at the same time he thought it was funny to see me confused. So, yay...almost two hours of my life gone...did I have, like, a stroke or something?

"Eric!" Willow greeted me from behind. I turned around and saw her and Xander walking in my direction, a slight urgent look on both of their faces. "Hey, you didn't meet us in the library for the meeting."

"No wonder I couldn't find you guys. So, there was a meeting? What about?" I asked curiously. Willow's brow furrowed in confusion and Xander just gave me a quizzical look.

"You tell us..." Xander replied his hands slightly gesturing in front of him.

"I...I don't get it..." What the hell are they talking about?

"Your...meeting...? The one you called us about having last night...?" Willow tried to explain, her face somewhere between disbelief and worry.

"Guys, I nev-" Oh, right. Two hour time period; gone... "Oh...okay, so...I don't exactly remember what happened last night."

"...Tequila?" Xander teased, his face still the same as before.

"Not exactly. I'm missing an entire two hours from last night. What time did I call you guys?"

"Around...7:10?" Willow asked the guy next to her, getting a quick nod in response.

"Okay...so there must be something else I'm not remembering since I said we should have a meeting...damn it. Do you think Amy would...?"

"I don't think she would. I mean, you're not really a cheerleader..." Xander pointed out.

"She would if you found something out about her..." Willow had a point. But what could it be?

We decided to meet Buffy at cheerleading practice since nobody saw her since yesterday, either. Maybe she'll know what to do...?

We entered the gym and was immediately greeted by loud music that they were practicing to. Buffy immediately saw us and cheered our names in excitement.

"Willow! Xander! Eric! My buds are here. I love my buds!" Buffy then proceeded to jump up and down, showing exuberantly unabashed joy.

"Umm...does she seem...?" I asked, hoping I was just out of it or something.

"Like _she's_ the one that drank the tequila?" Willow quipped, a sense of distress in her voice.

"Oh yeah..." Xander said with equal amount of disbelief that both Willow and I seemed to be experiencing.

Buffy continued to dance around as their routine continued. "We better get her out of there..." Willow advised us, but all we could do was stare on at our seemingly intoxicated friend.

"Yeah, before she-" But Xander didn't have time to finish before one of the cheerleaders was thrown across the room in a very painful looking cartwheel. "-hurts somebody..." We rushed over to the girl lying on the floor as she groaned in both equal amounts of pain and frustration.

"You are _so_ out of here." The cheerleader spat, shoving Buffy away from her in anger. "Who's our next alternate?" And of course, Amy stood not five feet away. She seemed oh-so creepy, but somewhat jittery and spastic. I just glared at her knowingly, but she was too busy patting herself on her back for a spell well done.

"No, no, no, no. You don't want her! She's a wi-!" Buffy blurted out right before Xander cupped a hand over her mouth so that she wouldn't be heard.

"A wise choice, indeed." Xander smiled, trying to recover Buffy almost outing us to Amy. Willow and I tried to help the cause and gave the two cheerleaders a big faux smile. Although, Amy didn't seem all too convinced. We dragged Buffy out of there before she could reveal more...like being a slayer, for instance.

"She's a _witchy_." Buffy squeaked out as the three of us continued to help her to Giles.

"Witchy must have made you an alkie." I muttered as she leaned forward.

"So sicky..." Buffy grumbled as she continued to look down at the ground to watch the square tiles 'zoom' past her. "I just got kicked off the team, didn't I?"

"I don't think it was your fault." Xander informed her, trying to at least take the blame off of her.

"I know you don't. That's cuz you're my friend. You're my...Xander-shaped friend!" she babbled, noticeably slurring some of her words. "Do you have any idea why I love you so, Xander?" Now, she was leaning her entire body weight onto him, looking into his eyes innocently.

"Xander, maybe she shouldn't say-" I tried to caution from continuing the conversation, but was quickly interrupted by the, now, eager teen.

"Let her speak." he commanded ecstatically with a grin from ear-to-ear. This can't end well...

"I'll tell you." Buffy started, a completely serious tone to her voice. Her fingers were clumsily placed onto his face in order to gain his full attention. "You're not like other boys _at all_. You are totally and completely one of the girls!" Her voice was now playful with glee as she ended her statement. Willow was now smiling happily and I let out a quick guffaw, getting Buffy's attention.

"And you. You, too! But it's better because you, _you_ like boys. Hey! The...three of us should have a slumber party!" Buffy proposed cheerfully. I could just stand there, try not to laugh too hard, and agree.

And as Buffy started babbling insistently on what we would do at said sleepover, Xander leaned over behind her, neither of the girls noticing. "See? You're one of the girls, too..." Xander muttered softly to me, his breath lingering somewhat on my ear. It made me shiver, unnoticed, but I quickly regained my composure.

"Yeah, but that future slumber party...five words, Xan; _every straight man's unrealistic fantasy_." I mocked, a teasing smirk only provoking him even further.

"Unrealistic...? You mean they _don't_ bounce around, trying on each others' underwear followed by a fluffy, _fluffy_ pillow fight?"

"It's more like hanging around in sweats and an oversized t-shirt while being bored and eating junk food they wouldn't normally eat while sifting through old magazines just looking for something to do, but just, you know, together..." I tried explaining, only telling him what I know. But then, his face dropped into a shocked frown. And even though I knew it was only for the sake of the banter, I wanted to cheer him up by humoring him. So I gave a heavy sigh, followed by an eye roll, and said, "_Then_ come the fluffy, fluffy pillow fights..." His smile returned, and I couldn't help but smile right there with him.

"Oh...I don't feel so good..." Buffy spoke suddenly. Not a moment after, her body slumped into our receiving arms.

"Alright, time to haul ass to see Giles." I commanded as I took her upper body and Xander grabbed her legs to make sure they didn't drag awkwardly along the cheap tiled flooring. Willow decided to go ahead of us and have Giles prepare whatever Buffy might need to know.

We rushed in through the two doors and we set her down gently into one of the chairs circled around the main table. Giles ran over with a cool towel to help with the flushed look on the now-conscious blonde's face. And although her eyes were open, she was still extremely weak.

"We've got to get her to a hospital!" Willow interjected as she placed the towel onto Buffy's forehead to try and clear up the visible perspiration.

"They can't help her. This is a 'Blood Stone' vengeance spell. It hits the body hard like uh-uh-a quart of alcohol." Giles enlightened us as he continually checked his watch as he took Buffy's pulse.

"She's knows I know she's a witch..." Buffy stated meekly, her voice raspy and limp.

"The others she just wanted out of the running. You, she seems to intend to, umm..." Giles stuttered out the last part, having trouble finding the right gentle vocabulary, but we all knew what word he was putting off saying, and Buffy was the one to speak of it first.

"Kill." Exactly. I felt my face flush with emotion with the thought of this truly ending her.

"How much time do we have left?" Willow asked impatiently, her voice wrecked with panic and urgency.

"Well, I-I-I'm sure-" Giles stammered out, doing the same thing he was doing moments ago; protecting us.

"Truth..." Buffy beckoned, her eyes dully looking at the older man. "_Please_..."

"A couple of hours...Three, at most..."

"Well, there has to be a way to reverse this, right?" I attempted to say it tranquilly, but it came out a bit more clamorous than I had hoped for.

"I'm sure we can reverse the spells, but we need to get our hands on Amy's spell book." Willow seemed to ask what was on my mind; what if we couldn't get to it? "The other way is to...cut the witch's head off."

"Show of hands?" Xander spoke, raising his own in emphasis. Truthfully, I was torn if we should or not.

"It's not Amy's fault." Buffy argued insistently, her voice raising slightly to get her point across. "She only became a witch to survive her mother."

"Look, I don't care why. I just care that you go on breathing." Xander justified, his own opinion set in stone on what we should do if it comes down to it. But I would help with that, too, if need be. If she wanted to continue hurting Buffy down to her last moments of life, there was no way I would hold back from doing what we _have_ to do.

"Giles, where would she be casting these spells?" Buffy asked as her eyes closed, trying to drown out the feeling of sickness that overwhelmed her.

"She would need uh-uh-uh-a pentagram, or a, uh, a large pot." Giles told us as he wiped his glasses clean.

"Her home...Okay. Help me up..." Buffy groaned at us. Both Xander and I got her to her feet stably, making sure she was safely handed off to Giles for support. "Just have to go to her house and get her book..."

"We'll go with you." Willow proposed, willing to help her friend in need.

"No, you guys stay here. Keep an eye on Amy." Buffy authorized us, followed by Giles.

"And keep her away from the science lab. We'll need it to cast our counter spells."

There were a few seconds of deafening silence, a mood of concern thick in the air between the three of us. God, I hope we can do this in time.

"Well, game starts soon. Best way to keep an eye on her is to watch her rah-rah." Xander insisted, getting both Willow and I to nod in agreement.

**B U F F Y**

We sat in the bleachers, the people around us completely unaware of what was happening in the science room. Hopefully, we can keep Amy oblivious to it, too. As they did their routine, Amy looked somewhat shaky and distracted, blinking away whatever her mind was thinking.

As the routine went on, she grew more and more concerned, looking toward the doors to the gym. I looked to both my left and right at the two friends I was sitting in between, giving them a nervous glance. Thankfully for me, they looked just as nervous.

As she stood on top of two girls' palms for support, she started to become off-balanced. Seconds later, she toppled over, causing the rest of the squad to do the same thing. She got up rather fiendishly, snapping her head between the other squad members.

"Well, boys and girls. It's showtime..." Xander notified us as we continued looking on at the skittish witch, the entire room in silence as they did the same.

We got up and off of the bleachers and went around the back to the hallway leading to the science lab. Willow was blocking the direction while Xander and I waited in the background for the spell caster to come along. Plan A of distracting an evil bitch is in motion.

Moments after we were in position, Amy storms through the doors in an obvious rush towards where Giles and Buffy were.

Willow was distracting her with mindless babbling about something, but I couldn't really pay attention. I was too focused on sneaking up behind her alongside Xander. But before we could make it, Amy snapped around and cupped her palm. Xander was grabbing for his throat with an obvious loss of air.

"Xander!" Willow and I cried it out in unison as I tried to wrack my brain for a way to help him. Before I knew it, he fell over in pain as she closed her fist and turned back to swing at Willow, knocking her out cold. With her back turned, without any hesitation, I rushed toward her. She swiftly turned back just in time to yell out something in an unknown language.

"_Quiesco_!" It was the last word I heard before I felt my body slump over and hit the ground with an audible thud as the world quickly hazed around me.

**B U F F Y**

"...Eric..." A faint voice called out to me, rushing me from what felt like a deep slumber. I groaned groggily before opening my eyes to Xander's panicked face kneeling over me, his hands placed firmly on my shoulders. A look of slight relief washed over him, but it was replaced shortly after by a look of concern.

"Come on, we gotta get to Buffy." With that, I immediately got up on my feet and ran next to Xander toward the lab. "Wait, what about Willow?" I asked, slowing down to turn back.

"She's okay. She's trying to find a weapon, just in case. Now, come on!"

We rushed into the room, Xander lunging for Amy as soon as she was in sight, constricting her from using her arms. "I got her, I got her! Cut her head off!" he yelled loudly and slightly exasperated.

"Xander, what are you doing?" Buffy asked urgently as she stepped toward him.

"Umm, hello! Witch here, ax there!" I tried explaining, gesturing wildly at the weapon wedged into the desk. I meshed my fingers together roughly, hoping to get my point across.

"Get...your hands off of her..." Buffy calmly instructed. Xander loosened his grip slightly and looked back at the girl he had captured as I gave Buffy a quizzical look.

"But she's evil..." Xander justified as I nodded along slowly, finally getting that this was already taken care of.

"Well, it wasn't exactly her..." Giles enlightened us as Amy looked at the awkwardly close guy still not giving up the use of her arms.

"I was my mom..." Amy elaborated. With that, Xander finally, but hesitantly, let go of her. Before I knew it, I let myself speak just for the hell of speaking and beating Xander to the last word.

"Oh...well, I guess that settles tha-"

"Where is she?" Willow burst through the room, nostrils flaring and metal bat in-hand, ready to smack any deserving witch within a three-foot radius.

"Willow, it's cool." Xander told our skittish 'warrior.'

"It is?" She asked, just as confused as both Xander and I were not too long ago.

"Yeah, I took care of it." Xander grinned cockily, causing me to roll my eyes in amusement as I saw Buffy look at him incredulously, as did Amy.

**B U F F Y**

The next day in school felt normal, to say the least. Turns out we won the basketball game, despite the scene caused by a former uber bitch/mother/daughter/witch.

"So, sleepover at Buffy's house tonight in celebration of taking down our first witch." Willow said as she walked up behind me, Xander popping out from beside me. "Sorry Xander..."

"Thank _God_ it's Friday! Never before have I adored an acronym as much as I do at this very moment..." I grinned, finally happy that this long week was coming to an end.

"Wait, wait, wait. Go back to the part about the sleepover. Why am I not invited?" Xander asked impatiently, stepping in front of us to gain our full attention.

"Sorry, Xander; girls only." Willow explained, somewhat in a mocking manner.

"But Eri-"

"In 'Brillow' language, 'girls only' means 'girls and any openly gay males who would want to spend the night'...'only'..." I elaborated some more to get the point across using the same teasing tone Willow used. "But how about this. I'll get Buffy to consider you joining us if you can answer me this; why can straight guys slap other straight guys' asses during sports, but they can't even hug each other without somebody being uncomfortable?"

"Well...I don't know!" Xander exclaimed, throwing his hands up in defeat.

"Sorry, I tried..." I said playfully as we walked around Xander.

"Come on! That wasn't fair." he walked back in our paths as he gave me the puppy dog eyes with a slight pout. I sighed heavily before giving in.

"Tell you what, though. As soon as I wake up tomorrow, I will call you with every _juicy_ detail of what goes down tonight."

"You promise?" he asked hopefully, a giddy smile on his face.

"Promise."

**B U F F Y**

Through the silence, you could hear Buffy crunching into neon orange cheese snacks as we all sat around the living room. But my mind was wandering to the new sound of Willow flipping through the pages of a magazine, but I didn't care to show any physical signs of acknowledgment. So I just sat there, sifting my way through the channels.

"Anything good on?" Buffy asked in a disinterested voice as she continued to dig her way to the bottom of the plastic bag.

Only after a few seconds of silence did her question register in my mind as she awaited a reply. I answered in monotone voice, the random sounds and voices coming from the television making it somewhat hard to hear "Nope..."

"Want to do this personality quiz?" Willow asked, her voice equally as lazy.

"We already did." Buffy informed her as she bit into another cheese puff, never looking away from the flashes emitting from the television screen. "Remember? I'm an autumn."

"Oh, yeah..." Willow sighed to herself as she returned to flipping through the pages.

**B U F F Y**

**Hope you guys enjoyed! Not sure what episodes are gonna be used for the next chapter, but stay tuned!**


	3. Chapter III: Bug Eyed

**Wow...it's been quite some time, hasn't it? I am so sorry! Life just kind of got...well, it got shitty. And life also smells somewhat like procrastination. But that's all in the past because I am back in being the Buffy buff that I normally am. I know episode titles, actor names, and I still bawl like a baby during the same scenes as the first time I watched it.**

**So, I decided to do every episode...I know! We are in for a long ride, my friends. I just hope you can be patient enough with me. I have a lot of big plans for Eric. Just wait and see :)**

**Disclaimer: For the last time, my name is Ritchie! Not Joss Whedon! If I created Buffy, there would be a gay male character that didn't get killed off during "Graduation."**

**Let's get on with it!**

**B U F F Y**

It was just a normal afternoon, our Biology teacher rambling on and on about bugs. I got the physical willies when I saw a bug; any bug. Worst bug out there? Praying Mantis. They are just incredibly creepy to me. I looked over, getting the heebie-jeebies over a close-up of an ant that was displayed on the projector screen.

That's when I saw Xander daydreaming again. About Buffy, no doubt. And judging by the amount of drool sliding down the corner of his mouth, it was a rather vivid one. Buffy looked over from her stool next to mine and tried to get Xander's attention.

"Xander!" she called in a hushed tone, starting to gesture toward her lip. "You're drooling!" That didn't seem to get his attention, so she continued. "_Xander_!" Buffy said, a little more aggressively. He suddenly looked over and straightened up a bit. "You got a little..."

Xander furiously wiped at his mouth, trying to stop the rest of the drool before it became visible to even more people. I chuckled lightly before returning my attention back to the creepy crawlies on the screen.

Luckily, that's when the presentation subsided and the teacher, Dr. Gregory, turned the lights back on. "Now, if you read the homework," he began as he walked down the rows of lab tables, "you would know the two ways that ants communicate." He then stopped in front of Xander, taking him out of my personal view, and crossed his arms before calling on my blonde friend sitting next to me.

"Ways that ants communicate...?" Her tone was more questioning than anything else. He nodded along, clarifying what he said but with a knowing glint in the eyes peeking over his glasses. Oh, God. This won't end well. "With other ants...?" That's when Willow got Buffy's attention by faintly patting on Xander's back.

She then proceeded to play charades with Buffy as to give her the right answer, which looked kind of fun, actually. She ghosted over Xander's back as she made rubbing motions along the curve of it.

"Umm...uh...touch." Buffy answered. I could see her gaze go back and forth between the bio teacher and Willow as the red-haired girl continued to act out the answer for her. That's when she lowered her head down and started to visibly sniff at Xander's shoulder. I almost guffawed at that, but I kept it in. "And...umm..._B.O.?_" Buffy finished with disbelief, the teacher giving her a slightly disappointed look.

"That would be touch and _smell_, Ms. Summers." He corrected, raising his eyebrows once in slight amusement. "Is there anything else Ms. Rosenberg would like to tell you?" Willow went back to facing the front of the room, trying to play it off as if she wasn't just sniffing her best friend. The bell rang, signaling the end of class

"Good luck, Buffy." I patted her shoulder lightly as I slung my backpack over my shoulder. "Willow will be waving frantically outside the door, awaiting a question she can act out in case of emergency."

Willow smacked my arm lightly as her, Xander, and I walked out of class and into the crowded hallway.

"A quick trip to each of our lockers and we can finally make this excruciatingly long day truly begin." I whined as we sluggishly made our way over to Willow's. "So, Bronze tonight?" I asked, although I already knew the answer. Whenever it was the weekend or just a slow afternoon, we hung out there. "Live music, drinks, crowd of potential future exes. Who's with me?"

"Tempting..." Xander teased as he slapped at a resonating drool spot on his navy blue sweater.

"Not only are they potential future exes, but their potential future _evil_ exes." Willow started, already on the verge of ranting. I just rolled my eyes bemusedly and listened to what she had to say. "Think about it! You can be asking out a vampire on a date, for all you know! O-o-or even a witch!"

"Yes, Willow. Every potential urban legend is sprouting out there. We get it. Gee, crush my dreams at a normal date, will ya?" Buffy interjected as she caught up with us, hugging at her biology book.

"I, for one, cross the line at dating a Sasquatch." I joked as we made our way from Willow and Xander's locker and onto my own. The combination was easy to remember, so it took no time for me to grab whatever I needed and close it up.

"So, has anybody else been getting visits from Mr. Creepy?" Buffy asked the four of us, and I tensed up internally. Was she talking about Angel?

"Janitor Buck 's been visiting you, too?" Xander always had a way with making a joke out of pretty much anything, which kept us sane during the weird times.

"You should probably report that." I continued, trying my best to keep the ball rolling on the jokes and Buffy's mind off of maybe-Angel. No luck, though.

"No, umm...this guy keeps showing up out of nowhere to tell me what the lunch special evil is cooking up that night." Yup, definitely Angel. Guess it was stupid of me to think that Angel would only talk to me about what was going on. After all, Buffy _is_ the Slayer; the one girl in all of Deadland that can fend off the vampires toting picket signs against garlic and crosses.

"W-w-what _guy_?" Xander stuttered out nervously, gesturing broadly as he stopped all of us in our tracks to put this conversation to rest with potentially happy words that would never escape Buffy's lips.

"Just a guy named Angel...he knows about stuff, which is peculiar." I decided not to mention the fact that I knew him. It didn't seem like anybody else was visited by Angel, so why should I bring it up. Okay, I probably should, but why couldn't I muster up the words?

"That _is_ kind of weird...Anyway, I will see you guys later. Wear your finest and meet at my house tonight. We can just walk from there. Oh, and I kind of know Angel, too. See ya!" I gave a quick, friendly smile before rushing off, making my way to the library just to study. Okay, looks like I just needed a clear exit before the words escaped my mouth. Sure, not very mature of me, but I was hoping it wouldn't really matter in a few hours.

**B U F F Y**

It was about 7 o' clock and I was pretty much done with all that I had to do; chores were done, my mom's dinner was in the microwave. All that I had to do now was get dressed.

It was pretty hot outside, so I decided to go light with a plain cobalt-colored t-shirt and a pair of loose beige pants.

Luckily, my friends were running a bit late, so it gave me time to finish getting ready. Before I knew it, there were a few knocks and a continuous rings of the doorbell. It was more than likely that Xander was just trying to announce their presence in the loudest way possible. I opened the front door and sure enough, Xander was positioned to push the bell one last time as Buffy and Willow just continued to look on.

"Get inside, Quasimodo." Xander then proceeded to hunch his back and let out a few weird groans as he hobbled his way past me.

"You never cease to surprise me, Xander Harris." Buffy said sarcastically, her arms crossed over her black v-cut dress.

"By 'surprise', don't you mean 'agitate'?" I teased, giving Xander a small smirk.

Being the dramatic comedian of the group, Xander lightly placed his hand over his heart and said a saddened, "Ouch..." I just continued smirking as the girls did the same.

"Ready to go?" Willow asked cheerfully as she tugged at the sleeves of her baggy sweater.

"Yup. Time to paint the town red...hopefully, not red with blood...just, you know, red with...fun...?" I ended awkwardly, my friends' eyes on me as I tried to salvage what I had left of that sentence.

"A-blood painting we will go." Buffy teased as they walked out the front door. God, I should probably take up a second language seeing as my first one is going ever so smashing...I have to stop hanging around Giles...

**B U F F Y**

Buffy, Willow, and I were settling into the crowd as Xander offered to get us a few drinks. And being how we were still sixteen, that translated to 'Cokes or cranberry juice.' As we were looking for an available spot to hang out, Xander came from behind us.

"Babes!" he called, wrapping each of his arms around the two girls, draping over their shoulders. The three of us all made the same look of confusion as he smiled on.

"What are you doing?" Buffy asked, the question we've all been waiting for Xander to answer on his own.

"Work with me here. Blayne had the nerve to question my manliness, and we're just gonna give him a visual." Ah, the explanation for the out-of-the-ordinary. Well, this version of it, anyway.

"We'll show him!" Willow then pulled in closer, her arm reaching across his abdomen. I gotta say, I was a bit jealous.

"Question _your_ manliness? No way! Doesn't he remember that you played Barbies with Willow back in grade school?" I smirked lightly, teasing him. His face faltered as the two girls looked up at him with amused looks on their faces.

"Dear God, my manliness is no longer salvageable..." I couldn't tell if his worry was in sake of comedic timing or if he really felt he wasn't manly, which is ridiculous. But maybe that's just my gushy-mushy-crushy feelings thinking for me.

"I don't believe it..." Buffy said, her eyes focused somewhere on the other side of the club. I looked over and saw Angel standing there, waiting for her to walk over. He looked just as mysterious and inconspicuous as ever before. She made her way over to him, probably to question why he was there.

"Who's that?" Xander asked, the question directed to nobody in particular.

"_That_...would be Angel." I answered, not looking over to see the faces of my two friends.

"Well, he's buff...nobody ever said anything about him being buff." Xander's tone was obviously his uncanny impression of the green-eyed monster.

"You think he's buff?" Willow asked, but it was just to kind of keep the words flowing. It usually comforted Xander up a bit, oddly enough.

"He's a very attractive man!" Xander gestured toward him, obviously agitated with some competition for Buffy. "How come that never _came_ up?"

"Still questioning your masculinity there, Xan?" Sure, my line was meant to tease him and maybe loosen Xander up a bit, but it didn't seem to have any effect on him.

After a minute or two more of gazing and glaring at the two familiar faces, Angel gave her a look of concern before taking off his black leather jacket and wrapping it around her frame.

"Oh, right...give her your jacket. It's a balmy night; nobody needs to be trading clothing out there!" Xander exclaimed.

"Said the man in a cotton knit sweater..." Yup, definitely Xander in jealous-mode. Not that I minded, really. Xander in any mode was better than no Xander at all.

"Oh, hey! She has her, 'I-just-heard-something-bad-but-it's-too-eery-to-share-with-the-rest-of-the-room-so-I'm-gonna-go-ahead-and-hide-it-before-they-look,' look. So, she must not have had _too_ much fun with Angel." It was a stretch, but I think that I was right. Buffy was sporting that very specific look. Angel had left suddenly and he left her with that, which could only mean that there was some new evil afoot.

"What did he say?" Willow asked her softly, which usually meant she was curious about something.

"Just something about a demon with forks, no biggie." Buffy was instantly back to her sarcastic self before you could even spell out 'sarcastic.' Then again, she probably had some practice after being the Slayer for a year. "Who's up for a dance?" Xander quickly grasped her shoulder and led her to the crowded dance floor as the live band continued to play, leaving both Willow and I to tend to our loneliness with each others' company.

"So...you know Angel, huh?" Willow's voice sounded amused as she looked up at me with her big, brown eyes.

"Where's a vamp attack when you need one? Better yet, Salad Forks McGee should make an appearance..." I said, trying to avoid the subject as we found a spot on one of the couches. She continued to look at me, waiting for me to continue. "Alright, yes. I know him." So, I told her about Angel and how I knew him. Although, I 'forgot' to tell her how I thought he was kind of attractive...

**B U F F Y**

I got home soon before my mom walked up to the front door. I was already waiting for her in my basketball shorts and black wife beater. "How was work, Ma?"

Before answering, she took off her tan coat and hung it up by the door and set her purse down on a nearby chair. "Tiring. Candy was out today, so I had to cover her area."

"Ah, Candy. I'll take 'Fake Waitress Names' for 200, Alex." I joked as I put a cooking time for the plate of food in the microwave.

"Be nice," she said with a smirk as she took her curly brown hair out of her loose ponytail, "She's a sweet woman." Candy also happened to be a sixty-four year old waitress who believed that I would be going to hell for 'committing acts of homosexuality.' Little does she know that I caught her grandson, Larry, sneaking peeks at the jocks washing off in the showers after P.E.

"As much as I would love to talk about your concerning choices in work buddies, I have to attend to doing my part of the research on some dem-" Oh crap. Quick, Eric! How do I salvage the situation? "demolition! Yeah! It's a tragedy, really. They're planning on demolishing the old warehouse up on Chablis Boulevard." Nice save, loud mouth.

She looked at me strangely as she took off her earrings and set them on the counter. "What, you mean that ancient eyesore?"

"Mom, I already told you; I don't have time to talk about Candy." I retorted with a roll of my eyes before walking down the hall and into my bedroom, shutting the door behind me.

I could feel myself grow tired almost instantaneously at the sight of my bed. It looked all comfy and welcoming with its fluffy pillows just mocking me. Maybe if I just take quick nap. I set my alarm for two hours from now so that I could see if I could find anything about the new demon. I set my head on my pillow but was disturbed by a quiet tapping on my window.

Not surprisingly, Angel was standing at my window. Only this time, he was inside. "Wow, through my bedroom window again. How very Dawson/Joey of you."

I gave a loud sigh before he started in on what he came to fill me in on. "Did Buffy tell you?"

"About Sunnydale's very own Freddy Kreugar switching it up with his choice of handheld weapons? Yeah. She did." I glanced over to the wounds on his left arm. There was a set of loose and slightly tattered bandages wrapped around his injured forearm. He was close to bleeding through them.

Angel noticed where my eyes landed and said, "I'll fix it up properly later. This was all I had."

I rolled my eyes slightly and started to turn away from him and toward the entrance to my bathroom. "Don't be stupid. I have some here." I informed him as I rummaged through my medicine cabinet. "Sit." I ordered, pointing to my bed. Hesitantly, he sat down along the edge and I took a quick seat next to him. "You know, for a person who knows so much about demons, you would think you'd have proper first-aid at your place." Angel gave a small smirk as I took out the wrapping bandages from their packaging.

I unwrapped the used bandage and found that the wounds were rather deep. Something that can only be described as 'concern' rose up in me, but I pushed it down before it had a chance to settle on the surface.

Wrapping his arm up, I decided to ask him what was on my mind since this very afternoon. "So, I understand why you warn Buffy of all the spookies around here, but why me? And why not Willow and Xander? Or Giles? Giles would make more sense since he's all knowledgeable and English." Okay, so feeling up his biceps didn't help my incessant ranting.

He grinned lightly before answering, "Because you're different." I'd be lying if I claimed that what he said didn't make my heart flutter a bit. "Because you figured it all out before anybody ever told you."

"So what? Why does that give me special privileges?" I asked calmly as I finished up the bandaging.

"Because you just _are_ special." Angel said as he gazed into my eyes. I could feel my heart rapidly beating against the inside of my chest. That's when his face leaned in. My eyes fluttered closed before his lips captured mine in a passionate, yet delicate kiss. He slowly pulled back, his warm breath ghosting over the lips he was caressing with his own moments before.

I opened my eyes, but I wasn't staring into Angel's eyes anymore. I was staring at glowing yellow irises.

_**BEEP BEEP BEEP**_

I groaned before slapping at the noisy beeping on the side of my bed. It came to an abrupt silence in my bedroom. I opened my eyes and stared at my window, half-expecting Angel to be standing there. In fact, he was.

"It gets unmistakeably creepier when I catch you watching me sleep." I spoke in such a groggy tone that my words seemed to slur as they left my lips. I stretched slightly, my black shirt rising a little bit higher than usual. Realizing that, I quickly slumped back down and tried my best not to act embarrassed. "Nonetheless, what can I do for you, Angel?"

"Well," he began as he made his way through my open window, "you heard about the new demon in town, right?" He must have went home because he had a replacement jacket after giving Buffy one of his other ones earlier tonight. It was similar to the black leather jacket from before, but a little longer; almost long enough to be considered as a duster.

"Thanks to a certain blonde and beautiful mutual friend, yeah." He sat down in my computer chair and I sat up in my bed as I hugged one of the pillows, still a bit tired. Probably shouldn't have had that nap... "Heard you got a nice little flesh wound." I mentioned, gesturing toward his bicep.

"Yup, but all clean now." His voice was rougher than usual, obviously in some discomfort from the battle scar he was sporting. And here I was thinking that my dream was some sort of prophecy vision with all of these magical power things. Wrong again, Eric.

"So, there has to be more to this. What else is up?" I asked him, aware that he wasn't here for pleasantries.

"What? A guy can't stop by just to see what you were up to?" Angel responded, a miniscule smirk tugging at the curve of his lips. They were just so perfect in my dream. Or were some spooky vampire's? Oh, God. I gotta pick a better time to analyze this because Angel is just staring, observing me as I was deep in thought. I quickly shook myself away from it and replied.

"A guy? Yes. You? Never. i.e. waiting for me to wake up by my bedroom window."

"Well, I guess that can stop soon. Buffy can just relay the messages I give her to your friends." I wasn't going to lie; that made me feel kind of sad. The thought of not getting these random nightly visits sort of tugged at my heartstrings, but it shouldn't feel that way. Buffy is obviously attracted to Angel, and vice-verse. I just couldn't let that show. Ever.

"But you wouldn't be able to care for my mom's flower bed anymo—okay, rewind that and insert something less sexual innuendo-like." My nose scrunched up in feign disgust with a huge smile on my face from where that led, but I was confident that the smile didn't reach my eyes.

"You seem to run into a lot of those." He let out a rough chuckle as he looked on at me with my chin resting on the top of the pillow I seemed to be holding on to for dear life.

"Yeah, well, I have the mind of both a teenage boy and a quippy elderly woman. It's a very crowded condo in here." I joked as I pointed at my head for emphasis.

"Yeah, well, nonetheless, Buffy's sure got it under control."

"Well, I'd like to think we all have a part in keeping Sunnydale safe and out of the dark, but I'm pretty sure I'm just along for the ride by doing hours of research that leads me nowhere." I said with humor in my voice. Although, in my head, it was a bit more dark that I had planned. I haven't really proved myself a useful part of the Slayerettes. That's probably because there's not really much to prove. "Do you ever think it would just be easier if the world knew about all of this?"

"Now, where's the fun in that?" he smiled slightly but it didn't make me feel any better. I was way too deep in thought about this already

"No, I'm serious. Why not tell the world and have the policemen armed with wooden bullets and protection amulets?"

"Look, knowing about all of this..."

"-comes with all the responsibility of keeping it from surfacing. I know. I'm just ranting." I gave him a sad smirk before it faltered completely and I looked up at my ceiling fan, suddenly wishing I could muster up the energy to reach up and pull the cord to turn it on, thus relieving me of today's dry bare-boned heat. Then again, why should I be surprised that it's hot in Califor-

And before I could even finish that thought, Angel had walked over and tugged the dangling cord underneath the fan, the blades already beginning to speed up.

"Alright...new theory; telepath." I teased him as I propped myself up further onto my mattress and sat Indian-style.

"I just thought you seemed about ready to overheat." His voice was a little softer than when he was sitting in the chair, but I'll just chalk that up as being within closer proximity of me. "While I'm up, I might as well go."

"Ah, yes. More shadows to creep in, more people to stalk. You are a busy man, Angel." He laughed lightly before he made his exit. I just slumped into my bed and thought about what just happened. The truth was, I probably wouldn't see him anywhere near my room any time soon, and that didn't seem to bode well with me. Maybe I can get that silverware demon to—Oh, no! I still have research to do.

"Uggghhh!" I groaned rather vocally as I stuffed my face into my pillow.

**B U F F Y**

"Hey, Willow." I greeted her as I walked up the steps of Sunnydale High. She was sitting next to some of the school's foliage, a textbook in her lap. "How did you sleep?"

"Pretty well. Although, I kind of expected that a certain message-giver would show up outside my bedroom window." she teased, her voice hushed as to not give away what I told her last night just in case one of the gang was around. "Did he visit you at all?"

"Nope. Maybe he stopped once the word got out about him. Man's gotta keep his shadowed face...in the shadows...and all that, so he probably won't be around for awhile." I have to admit that saying it aloud struck a little more emotion from me than just thinking about it, but I was the master at not letting any negative feelings show.

"Oh, look! Here come the Slayer/Watcher combo meal." Willow pointed at the two conversing as they made their way toward us. Thank you, Willow, for taking me out of my own thoughts.

"...all Cryptic Guy said; 'fork guy.'" Buffy explained, her hands gesturing slightly at the length of her gingham-patterned dress.

"I think there are too many guys in your life." Giles retorted before letting out a few chuckles. He paused for a moment as he looked up at the sky with disgust on his face, his mouth grimacing at the sight. "God, every day here is the same."

"Right. Sunny, beautiful. However can we escape this torment?" Buffy said sarcastically as she took a seat next to me, her backpack falling off her shoulders and onto the spot in front of her.

"Really." Giles agreed, acknowledging the sarcasm but choosing to ignore it's tone. He bit into the green apple he was holding once more before turning to leave. That's when Xander rushed over, looking anxious to say something.

"Guess what I just heard in the office; no Dr. Gregory today." he stated as we looked on at him, a look of worry briefly crossing our faces. "Ergo, those who blew off our science homework aren't as dumb as we look." That's when he flipped Willow's textbook closed for added emphasis, his hand slightly brushing against the top of my knee.

"Aww, you used 'ergo.' Looks like somebody has been doing their English assignments." I mocked as he just smirked at me.

"What happened? Is he sick?" Buffy asked, obviously more concerned than the rest of us.

"They didn't say anything about sick. Something about...missing." Xander wasn't one to catch on, but we kind of dreaded what 'missing' usually seems to mean in this town. Buffy questioned it before Xander began to elaborate. "Well, let's see. Umm...the cheerleaders were modeling their new short skirts, I kinda got..." Xander explained distractedly as he stood there with a dopey grin on his face. Realizing where his mind was leading him, he looked at us, slightly embarrassed, and continued. "...yeah, yeah. They said missing."

The three of us each exchanged a look of dread before he spoke up again. "Which is bad...?"

"If something's wrong; yeah." Buffy said, her blonde hair slightly crossing over her shoulder as she shook her head in worry.

"Yeah, Xander. This is the place of ooky-spooky beings."

"That and he's one of the only teachers that doesn't think Buffy is a felon." Willow added, although Buffy glanced at her briefly at her poor choice of words.

"I'm really sorry. I'm sure he'll-" That's when Xander lost all inability to speak as he was looking in the direction of the front of the school. The three of us looked over at what exactly was making Xander dopier than usual.

A lady no more than in her early 30's dressed in a black blazer with a matching skirt that came up past her knees. She was carrying a purse and what seemed to be folders and her lunch for the day. She had dark brown hair that swept just above her shoulders and ruby red lips from her lipstick color. The woman also had laugh marks around her mouth as she grinned softly at the gazes she very well knew she was getting from the male population around her.

Oh no, she's walking over here; over to Xander!

"Could you help me?" _No. _I thought to myself with a hint of venom in its tone. Xander looked around briefly as if she were speaking to someone else. He answered with absolutely no vocabulary; just an audible 'uhh,' before giving her the quick and slightly rushed answer of 'yes.' "I'm looking for Science 109." she continued, her voice sultry enough to make me wanna puke all over her cheap faux leather mules...Don't tell anybody I know what 'mules' are...

"Oh, it's umm..." Xander then proceeded to look back and forth, just as he did before. Although, this time around, he was looking for a location. "I go there every day," he assured the woman. She only smiled on with her pearly white teeth. Why couldn't there be a giant floret of broccoli caught in one of them? Or maybe she could have a snaggle tooth!

Xander asked the three of us where the room was, frantically awaiting for our reply. The two girls next to me only shrugged and I could feel the twitch of a slight grin forming at the edges of my lips. That's when Blayne Mall stepped up to the plate, introducing himself to the stranger. His light brown hair was slicked back, the bottom of his hairline almost reaching his red and yellow letterman jacket.

"I'm going there right now. It's not far from the varsity field where I took all-city last year." he gloated, clearly trying to one-up Xander.

"How chivalrous..." I commented sarcastically. He gave me a quick glare before returning his cocky smile back to the lady.

"Why, thank you, Blayne." the woman smiled as they both walked away, Blayne's grin even more conceited than before, if that were even possible.

"It's funny how the Earth never opens up and swallows you whole when you want it to." Xander stated, the loss and defeat evident in his tone.

"I think I read about a spell for that." I retorted, hoping to cheer him up a bit. He, however, was unfazed.

Buffy and Willow just looked at each other, small smiles showing on their faces as they replayed the last minute back in their heads.

The first bell rang and it was time for our science class, once again. It didn't help that we were still talking about bugs in there. Alas, we made it without being attacked by grasshoppers or crawled on to death by ants.

Buffy looked down and picked something up. It was a pair of thick-rimmed glasses; one of the lenses was cracked down the middle. There was something vaguely familiar about them. Then, it hit me; they were Dr. Gregory's glasses.

"If Dr. Gregory dropped his glasses, why wouldn't he pick them up?" Willow and I both looked at Buffy grimly as she set down the pair of glasses onto a table holding a bunch of jars. She made a good point, but that only meant that Dr. Gregory had left in a struggle. With that piece of information embedded into our minds, we walked over to our usual desks right as the bell rang.

"My name is Natalie French and I'll be substituting for Dr. Gregory." Oh, great. The ogle-whore from earlier was our new substitute. I should have known that's why she was asking where the room was. I guess I was too distracted by Xander's attraction to notice.

And here she was, soaking it all in yet again. Only this time, she took off her blazer and stood there in her white top that showed off her bare arms. Why can't the sub be some grisly old woman with thick Coke-bottle glasses and that has as much of a tweed fetish as Giles?

"Do you know when he's coming back?" asked Buffy as she settled into the seat next to me.

No, I don't umm...Buffy." Ms. French ended with a small smile as she acknowledged the seating chart on her clipboard, which must have also had the lesson plan for the day.. God, I even found her voice annoying. It sounded like she had a slight accent, but I don't think that was the case. "They just call and tell me where they want me."

"I'll tell you where I want you..." Blayne said dreamily from behind us as he rested his head on his open palm, obviously daydreaming about the substitute, practically creaming his pants.

"Would that be with or without your Power Ranger footie pajamas?" I asked quizzically, with a small smirk on my face as the rest of the class chuckled along, which wasn't saying much since it was a really tiny class.

"Excuse me, Blayne?" Ms. French asked, seemingly angry at the comment. I'm sure she had to deal with hormonal teenage boys before since she didn't exactly seemed shocked at his remark.

"Uhh...I was just wondering if you were going to pick up where Dr. Gregory left off." Blayne replied, obviously proud of himself for recovering swiftly. She looked down momentarily before she answered with an affirmative 'yes.'

"His notes tell me you were right in the middle of insect life." she continued before she picked up a plastic containment box, holding a praying mantis that was clinging to one of the sides of the container. She proceeded to take a few steps along the front of the classroom with it in her hands. As you could imagine, I got slightly apprehensive. "Praying mantises are a fascinating creature; forced to live alone." She said it with such intrigue that it was evident that she was thrilled to be teaching about bugs. "Can anybody tell me why?" she asked the class before she called on Buffy.

"Well, the words butt-ugly kinda spring to mind." Buffy joked as she made a quick look of disgust at the insect inside the plastic walls.

"Agreed..." I gave in such a weak voice that I'm not sure I was heard. At this point, I wasn't even looking at what Ms. French was holding in her grasp. I was looking down, hoping to avoid seeing it for the rest of class.

"There is nothing ugly about these unique creatures." She said with such annoyance and malice that I had to look up. The substitute was staring daggers at Buffy, fire in her eyes. Damn, this woman really loved bugs. What a creep... "The reason they live alone is because they're cannibals." At this, everybody in the class made a noise or look of complete disgust. Buffy was especially vocal. "Ah. Well, it's hardly their fault. It's the way nature designed them. Noble, solitary, and prolific." Her lecture on it only gave me the wiggins, but I couldn't seem to tune it out. It was about how there were over eighteen different species and how, in all of them, the female is known to be more aggressive than its male counterpart.

"Nothing wrong with an aggressive female." Blayne whispered to the blonde girl sitting next to him. I think her name was Linda. Anyway, I looked back to glare at Blayne and Linda looked just about as disgusted with his comment as I was. He, however, just looked all nonchalant about it.

Ms. French proceeded on with her lesson and talked about how the female praying mantis had the male fertilize her eggs and put the egg sac some place safe and that it was only a matter of time before she had several hundred babies. That's one nursery I wouldn't want to visit.

"You know, we should make some model egg sacs for the science fair. Who would like to help me do that after school?" Every guy, well...straight guy, in the room seemed to raise their hands up at lightning speed, including both Blayne and Xander. I looked over at Buffy incredulously and glanced over at Willow, who had the same look on her own cream-white face. "Good." The woman said with satisfaction. "Let's see, I'll take Blayne this afternoon, Xander tomorrow, Matthew next week," she listed as she looked over the boys of the class as her own personal buffet.

Creepy. As. Hell.

**B U F F Y**

After science class, I made my way over to the library to pick up some of the slack after only half an hour of research last night before I finally slumped my way over to the sanctuary that was my cloud nine mattress.

Giles was sitting there with his face buried within a volume that looked to be hundreds of years old. "How's you day been so far, Giles?" I asked him as I set my backpack down next to the pile of books he had next to him.

"Quite fine, thank you. Yours?" He asked me kindly, a friendly smile gracing his mature features before he looked back down at the pages before him.

"Lots of creepy-crawlies involved, but no fork-finger demon. But then again, the day is young." I teased as I walked over to where the library had it's computers, only to find the spot empty and rather void of anything that replaced them. "Where in the name of Bill Gates are the computers?" I asked impatiently as I popped my head from behind a set of bookshelves.

"Oh, uh, they moved them to some dreaded computer lab they're constructing. Bollocks, I say." Giles answered with his usual British vocabulary that seemed to be rubbing off on me. No longer did I need to look at him in utter confusion. "But, uh, what is this about a, uh, fork demon...? The one that Buffy was speaking of this morning, correct?"

"Yup. Some sort of new baddie. Word on the street is the it likes to give innocent bystanders puncture wounds with its built-in eating utensils. Question is...heinous...or convenient?" The texts on the research table called out to me, so I went ahead and sat down at an empty chair and shuffled through the books for something that might lead us to gaining a one-up on the thing. _Index of the Daemon Vol. 5._ Hmm, sounds enticing.

"I thought I had actually heard wrong this morning but let me just clarify once more..._forks_?" Giles asked incredulously. I nodded before opening up the book in front me, instantly hit with the scent of old paper and worn leather. He took the current books off of the table, except for the other volumes of the series I was currently scavenging. He brought back a few more that might help with the problem and opened one up before we fell back into the silence that was only interrupted by the sound of pages turning. Well, momentarily, anyway.

After fifteen minutes of finding absolutely zilch, I sighed heavily and closed the demonic encyclopedia. "How are we going to find _anything_ on this ridiculous demon?" My question was rhetorical, but Giles still lifted his head up in response.

"To be honest, I don't even know where to start." Giles answered as he slowly closed his own book. He took off his glasses in exasperation and cleaned them off, probably just as a habit when he got frustrated.

"Oh, _that_. That thing you're doing. That reminds me. Did you see Dr. Gregory leave school yesterday? He left his glasses in his classroom."

"No, but I did hear that he hadn't shown up this morning. That does seem to be rather out of the ordinary for him, doesn't it?" His face was quizzical as he positioned his glasses onto his face once more.

"You don't think it has anything to do with this ludicrous fork thing, do you?" It was just a question said aloud that wasn't really meant to be taken with much seriousness, but Giles seemed to think it was.

"It very well may be. Although, I'm not sure where to start what with the broad and vivid description of the demon you informed me of."

"Hey," I began, putting my hands up to feign a defensive position, "you know just as much as I do, at this point. But we do have to start." A few moments of the two of us just glancing around, I opened the first book that was within reaching distance with an exhausted sigh. Giles went back to the spot he left off in his previous book.

**B U F F Y**

Finally. A break from a long day of research and class. Lunchtime.

Before heading over to the long line, I met up with the gang and we stood in line together. Although, I had no intention of eating whatever horrendous concoction the cafeteria ladies have brewed up for today's lunch.

"Hotdog Surprise, be still my heart." Buffy cringed as she hesitantly grabbed a styrofoam tray and a bowl for whatever else awaited us. My nose crinkled up when I smelled the hotdogs brewing in, what seemed to be, some sort of chili sauce. I decided just to grab a tray but skip on the pig hoof goodness. I hated hotdogs with a fiery passion. I know.

The irony is palpable.

"Call me old-fashioned; I don't want anymore surprises in my hotdogs." Willow responded humorously as she gave a meek smile in amusement, following suit with Buffy and I by grabbing a styrofoam plate. Instead of getting a plate for himself, Xander picked up a metal napkin holder and looked at his reflection.

"I wonder what she sees in me. It's probably the quiet good looks coupled with the smokey magnetism." Xander said arrogantly as he continued to check how he looked in the reflection of the silver container.

"That or your _dashing_ inability to show her even the most simplistic of directions." I retorted, the girls snickering behind their pursed lips.

"You three are probably a little too young to understand what an older woman would see in a younger man?" His voice sounded superior and I wasn't sure whether or not he meant for it to be like that.

"You mean besides jail time?" responded Willow as she warily scooped some of the pale green broccoli onto her plate.

"A younger man is too dumb to wonder why an older woman can't find somebody her own age and...too desperate to care about the surgical improvements." Buffy teased as she grabbed a small carton of 2% milk.

"What surgical improvements?" Xander asked desperately. He was panicking and Willow only egged it on by responding to Buffy's little rant.

"Aww, he _is_ young."

"And so terribly innocent." Buffy ended as the three of us grinned on as Xander stood there for a moment to let the conversation absorb.

"Hey. Those that can do. Those that can't laugh at those who...can do." He flailed the serving spoon around a bit as he said this. Blayne strutted right up behind him, his tray filled with an outrageous amount of food and milk cartons. A football player's strict food regime, I suppose.

"Gotta carb up for my one-on-one with Ms. French today." Blayne said cockily, his conceited self seeping through his red and gold letterman jacket. "When's yours? Oh, right; tomorrow. You came in second and I came in first. Guess that's what they call natural selection."

"Guess that's what they call a rehearsal! Rehearsal..." Xander said again to the three of us with a slight chuckle, but you could tell that Blayne's last comment hurt him a bit more than he put on. There's Xander again; making jokes to protect himself.

Buffy went to retrieve a fork for herself out of the utensil bin and Cordelia ran into her, coming in through the door in front of said bin. She scoffed at Buffy before saying, "Excuse you!" Buffy brushed it off since this was usual Cordelia I-am-superior-to-all behavior. "Medically prescribed lunch. My doctor ships it daily." Cordelia announced to one of the lunch ladies while she held what I assumed to be a doctor's note in her hand.

I go back to paying attention to my lunch and saw I was also in need of a fork when Cordelia screamed at the top of her lungs. The four of us jumped and rushed over to where Cordelia was standing, shocked. "His head! His head! Oh my, God—where's his head?"

And there it was. Dr. Gregory's body—decapitated. Oh, no. He did _not _deserve to die like this. I could see that my friends had equal looks of surprise and mortification.

**B U F F Y**

The library.

To us, it was a safe haven by now. It might have been the familiarity or the fact that Giles was here to help us find a rational explanation to a headless teacher.

Buffy seemed to be the most devastated of Dr. Gregory's death. She sat next to Willow and I on one of the steps inside the library. Giles must have noticed, also, because he poured a glass of water and gave it to Buffy.

"No, thank you." she responded as she took a sip from it.

"I've never seen—" Xander started anxiously as the rest of us looked on. "I mean, I've never seen anything like—that was new."

"Who would want to hurt Dr. Gregory?" Willow asked the room glumly. I sighed to myself, still burdened with the image of Dr. Gregory's body stuffed into the fridge.

Giles responded to Willow's question rather than to leave it in silence. "Uh, he didn't have any enemies on the staff that I'm aware of—he was a civilized man. I liked him."

"So did I." Buffy had tear streaks along her cheek bones. He was the only teacher who even gave her a chance to prove herself, so this must be horrible for her.

"Well, we're gonna find out who did this? We'll find them and we'll stop 'em." Willow added as she continued to look on at Giles.

"How do we know this is something supernatural and not natural?" I asked curiously, the question on my mind for the past few minutes. I was hoping it wasn't a dumb question, but what if it's just a murderer. Wow...'just' a murderer. That's what living in Sunnydale is like, I suppose.

"No, nothing like that is _natural_." Xander answered in disgust. I thought he was like that because of what I said, but he was still looking at nothing in particular as the room discussed Dr. Gregory.

"What do we know?" Giles asked us as he slowly paced the floor.

"Um, not a lot." Buffy wiped at her nose after deciding that she would try to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible. "He was killed on campus. I'm guessing the last day we saw him?"

Giles gave a quizzical look. "What makes you say that?"

"He didn't change his clothes." I answered for her, the image of his body hanging in the fridge still fresh in my mind.

"This is a question no one particularly wants to hear—where did they put his head?" Xander asked cautiously, his hands deep within his pockets. Ick, I would hate to think that fork demon did anything to Dr. Gregory's head.

"Good point. I didn't want to hear that." Willow responded, grossed and wide eyed as she played with her hands.

"Angel." Buffy announced to the room. "He warned me that something was coming." That he did. It's rather convenient that Angel knows about all of this. I wonder what his connections are because he seems to know an awful lot about Sunnydale's doom and gloom.

"Yes. Yes, he did, didn't he? I wish I knew what he meant." Giles began, starting to look around the room before he continued. "Eric and I were trying to gather more information about The Master, our local vampire king. I, myself, just recently came across an oblique reference a vampire who displeased The Master and cut his hand off in penance."

"Stumps McGee could never eat pasta again...until..." I interjected, waiting for somebody to piece it together.

Buffy was the first to vocalize her own thoughts. "He cut off his hand and replaced it with a fork?"

"That's the slightly disturbing theory. And if true, there were giant feasts to be had with his giant fork of a hand."

"But why would he come after a teacher?" Xander's confusion seemed to bring all of our own to light because it didn't make much sense.

"I'm not certain he did." Well, there go our ideas—down the Hellmouth and into it's stomach for consumption. "There was an incident two nights ago involving a homeless person in Weatherly Park." Giles informed us as he went over to the library's main counter and gathered up a recent newspaper. "He was practically shredded, but nothing like Dr. Gregory."

"Double Demon Jeopardy...Oh, joy..." My voice was a bit more nervous than I meant it to be, kind of shaky, but mostly because hello? Two demons to deal with at one time? I'm not exactly the best multi-tasker...

"You said that guy was killed in Weatherly Park?" Buffy asked Giles nonchalantly. Giles looked almost instantaneously against whatever the young Slayer might have had in mind.

"Buffy, I know you're upset. But this is not time to go hunting. Not until we know more. Please, promise me you won't do anything rash."

"Cross my heart." she answered all too easily. Uh-oh. I smell defiance. And a little bit of dead skin cells. Somebody should really dust off some of these bookshelves.

**B U F F Y**

Back at my house, everything was pretty still. I missed the company of my friends the most at times like these. I just used the time to get dinner ready for my mom, do my biology homework, and study for an upcoming history exam I had. Mrs. Leeman had a way of wording the questions in a ridiculous fashion to the point where you needed a Leeman-to-English translator handy.

When the sun went down, I was honestly expecting to have Angel come and visit me again. I caught myself glancing in the direction of my window just because.

Around 9:00, I got a knock on my front door. Judging by the pace, it was urgent. I rushed to it and peered through the peephole; it was Buffy.

"Emergency demon meeting." That was all she mentioned before she told me to grab my coat because we were meeting Willow and Xander at Buffy's place.

This sounds fun.

**B U F F Y**

"What do you mean Silverware Man just ran away?" Willow asked in a small voice, all of us well-aware that Buffy's mom was just a room away.

"Well, Ms. French just glared at him, he hissed, and ran off to the sewers with his tail between his legs." Buffy explained a bit more. "Oh, and that thing about the fork? Urban legend! Yeah, apparently, they're these super-sized claws! Where was that information, Angel?"

"Wait, vampires _hiss_?" Xander's voice was rather incredulous, and I couldn't disagree with his tone—the thought of a vampire hissing just didn't seem all that menacing.

"That, or Ms. French needs to be spayed." I joked to the group. Just as I said that, Ms. Summers walked in from the kitchen.

"Are you sure you kids don't want something to eat?" She had on a very friendly and motherly smile, which wasn't unwelcome amongst the world of evil demons with retractable cat claws. She had curly blonde hair shaping her head and pretty blue eyes. Buffy resembled her a bit, but not to the point of it being mind-blowing.

"We're sure, Mom. Thanks, though." Buffy responded, trying to get her out of here as quickly as possible to discuss the mystery that surrounds the new substitute teacher.

"So, was Ms. French still wearing her black skirt or was she going for a bit more comfortable?" Xander asked, unaware of how the three of us were glaring daggers at him for not getting the big picture. Luckily, we have Buffy to clarify.

"More comfortable, actually. She was wearing a muumuu and bright sea foam green hair rollers. Oh, and one of those wax strips _just_ above her lip." Xander's face dropped and I couldn't help but laugh out loud to the imagery of the possibility that if Ms. French didn't wax, she would have a furry mustache.

**B U F F Y**

I arrived at school a little earlier than normal, hoping to maybe gain some new knowledge now that we know Utensil Fingers is now a scary blood sucker with razor claws. My guess is that I'll just go straight to my Biology class with the still-pending Ms. French after all the research, so a trip to my locker for my textbook was a must.

The hallways were practically a wasteland at this time in the morning. There were only the few who had no choice because their parents had to leave early for work or the kids who liked to put in extra study hours in. Or, if you're like me, you're just here to look up the term 'cat vampire thing.'

It was always easy to remember my locker combination because the sequence of numbers were just doubled from the previous one. I swear, I got lucky.

I closed my locker and there was a face waiting to give me a heart attack. Well, not a face. Said face was attached to a body—Principal Flutie.

"Bah!" I jumped high into the air. At least, it felt pretty high up. I'm surprised I even held onto the textbook in my hand.

"You saw Dr. Gregory, correct?" he rushed out, a bit too much adrenaline running through his veins.

"Before or after rigor mortis kicked in?"

"Please, don't reference him using those kinds of words." He wasn't angry, but a bit wary. As if saying the wrong thing could end up getting the school sued. "Did you or did you not?"

"Umm yes...?" I was afraid what answering the question had in store for me this morning, and boy, was I correct in being that way.

"Come with me. You have to see a crisis counselor. Everybody who saw the body must see one." He explained as he led the way down the barren hallway.

"Oh, Mr. Flutie, I'm fine. Rea-"

"No, no. We mustn't hold our feelings in. We have to talk to somebody to let them out. If not, you'll be a very repressed young man who won't sustain a happy intimate relationship with your future wife." Oh, how he knew me so well.

"I would, but I have to do some research for biolo-"

"Don't leave Dr. Montus waiting." And once again, I was interrupted. "He's a very busy man, what with the five students and three staff members he has to talk to today." Honestly? I didn't see a way out of this. What with Principal Flutie manically delivering me to some counselor and keeping his heart rate at a healthy and even 200.

He had me enter a room where the counselor was still taking out his stuff from his brown leather briefcase. Funny—I never took therapists to carry around a briefcase with them.

"Ah, you must be Alexander." He put out his hand to shake it politely as he got up from his chair to greet me. "I'm Dr. Montus."

"It's nice to meet you, doctor. But, I gotta tell you, my mom is going to be angry when she's informed that the school changed my name." I teased the counselor as I took a seat across from his desk and set my backpack down.

"Oh, my apologies. You must be Eric Lobes. Correct?" He had a very proper way of speaking. Much like Giles' method, but without the accent. And he was a good fifteen or twenty years older than Giles, which probably explained it.

"That would be me." I answered uncomfortably, pretty much wanting to be anywhere else in the school other than this very room.

The next five minutes was spent having him convince me that me just saying that I was 'dealing,' didn't mean that I really was. So, just to get out of there, I started to cry on cue and say all this ridiculous babbling through heavy sobs. I was out of there in twenty minutes after he was convinced he helped me get through Dr. Gregory's death.

I walked out of the door to the classroom, finishing up my wad of tissue the Dr. Montus offered me and threw it in the trash bin just outside of it. I turned my body and almost ran into Cordelia Chase.

She gave me a weird look before she said, "Tragic, much?"

"Says the girl failing Driver's Ed..." I left it there because I honestly had no time to waste. Class was about to start soon and I didn't want to be late for Ms. French's fascinating lesson. Luckily, I was the first one there.

Yes...lucky me.

I sat down in my usual spot and took out my homework from last night. Ms. French glanced up from her lesson plan or whatever it was she had placed in front of her. Today, she had an uncanny resemblance to a slutty lemon, what with her yellow sweater and mismatched gold pencil skirt.

"Good morning, Eric." She said pleasantly as she got up from her desk chair. Well, Dr. Gregory's old chair. "Is that last night's homework?" I only nodded in response because it was kind of weird considering we didn't even know how she scared off a mean old vamp. "You seemed to answer the questions correctly."

"Yes, well, just because I'm grossed out by bugs doesn't mean I can't cover up the pictures as I read about them."

"And _what_ exactly is so 'gross' about these beautiful creatures?" Ms. French sounded incredibly agitated from my comment. Thankfully enough, I never got to answer her question because the first bell rang and Xander walked in, another male student not that far behind. She composed her self completely, creased her skirt down, and greeted the two with a smile. Of course, I don't think either of them even realized I was even there because all they could do was gaze at her. Oh my, God! She dropped that paper on purpose! And there she goes picking it up! Unsurprisingly, the boys were gawking at her as she bent over, their jaws practically in their laps. How very 'Mrs. Robinson' of her...

Okay, maybe I shouldn't judge. If this were a hot guy teacher, I'd probably drool all over chapter nine in my textbook, too. Stupid male hormones...We all turn into bumbling idiots when we're around the obviously sexy.

Then again, I'm not all babble-like when I'm around Angel or Xander. Maybe I only think I'm gay because of the media...

HAHAHAHAHA!

Yeah, sure...I sound like a conservative member of an Evangelistic church group. Just deem me Reverend Bigot.

A few minutes passed and the rest of the class got in. All except for Buffy. My guess is that Flutie found her and forced her into professing her feelings on his terms and not her own.

"Alright, class. I hope you all did you homework because we have a pop quiz today." Ms. French announced to the class. Maybe Buffy is lucky after all...

**B U F F Y**

"That test wasn't so bad." I claimed as I walked on through the crowded hallways with Willow to the library to see if Giles had any new information. Xander went to meet Ms. French in the teacher's lounge for the egg sac thing. How sexy that term is...Must be getting his teenage boy parts all rattling.

"Yeah, but Ms. French pacing the room didn't really help much. Especially now that we know that the underworld has a phobia for our substitute teacher." Honestly? I didn't even notice. I was way too caught up in my quiz, hoping that my utter distaste of insects didn't have any effect toward my grade on the subject.

Willow and I turned around to the sound of very persistent footsteps headed for our direction. Buffy was racing for us, already noticing she caught our attention.

"Guys, don't wig but I think Ms. French just pulled a Linda Blair in the middle of class."

"I think we would have noticed if she 'split pea soup'ed onto the back of somebody's head." I retorted, knowing that if something like that had happened, maybe that would have gotten the guys' attention away from her ass.

"No, she did a complete 180 with her neck!"

"Are sure she wasn't just turning around like a normal human being?" Willow tried to reason as we entered the library doors.

"No. I'm not saying she craned her neck. We're talking full-on _Exorcist_ twist."

"Lovely. She's a damn contortionist, too..." I commented as we walked over to Giles, who had his nose buried deep within some sort of mythical volume.

"How come Blayne who worked with her one-on-one yesterday isn't here today?" Huh. I actually didn't realize he wasn't in class. I probably should have thought something was up when I didn't find somebody to hate more than I did Ms. French. "Any lucky?"

"Um, I have not found any creature as yet that strikes terror in a vampire's heart." He answered to Buffy. Great, that means more research for us to do. Bah, humbug!

"Try looking under things that can turn their heads all the way around." She insisted, informing Giles of what was up in that classroom while we all paid no mind as we took our quiz.

"Nothing human can do that."

"Thus, her theory, Captain Britain." I deadpanned as I started searching for more information online. Thank God that they put the computers back in here. It was a pain having to look through books all of the time. Not that I don't enjoy reading, but coming home smelling like mothballs wasn't something I cherished.

"There are some insects that can. Whatever she is, I'm gonna be ready for her." Buffy announced before rushing to the bookshelves of the library. All that could be heard in the library at that very moment was the click-clacking of the keyboards and Buffy's footsteps up the set of half-stairs.

"What are you going to do?" And once again, Giles took his glasses off to clean whatever might have accumulated onto the lenses within that _daunting_ two-minute period since he last did it.

"My homework."

Dramatic much? Sounds like she was playing a part in a bad soap opera. Oh, I know! "And _these_ are the days of our lives..." Perfect.

Not seconds later, she rushed back out from the stacks of literature, novels, and texts. "Where are the books on bugs?"

"Ha!"

**B U F F Y**

"Dig this!" Buffy announced from amongst the shelves with a textbook open in her hands. "The praying mantis can rotate its head 180 degrees while waiting for its next meal to walk by." Ew. Stop with the bugs already! My skin is already crawling with all of the images that seemed to pop up on my computer screen; I didn't need a mental one. "Hah!" she exclaimed triumphantly, obviously quite proud of what she found. "Well, come on guys...hah..."

"Did you not hear my 'ha' five minutes ago when you pulled a 'Susan Sarandon in this month's tragic Lifetime movie'?"

"And Buffy, Ms. French is sort of big for a bug." Willow argued, obviously trying to think logically before claiming the first theory that popped in our minds.

"And she is by and large...woman-shaped." Giles supported, his fingers tangled in themselves as he spoke.

"Exhibit A: Her whore lips. If bugs had those, there would be a lot of insectophilia going around this school."

"Okay, factoid 1: only a praying mantis can rotate its head like that. Factoid 2: a pretty whacked-out vampire is scared to death of her." Buffy defended, making her case rather difficult to push away completely. "Factoid 3: her fashion sense screams predator."

"It's the shoulder pads." Willow joked from her seat in front of the computer. She did fancy a blazer with a cushy set of shoulder pads.

"Re: whore lips." I repeated, really emphasizing the 'dirty trollop' lipstick shade she had on at all hours of the school day.

"If you're right, she'd have to be a shape shifter or a perception distorter." Giles informed the three of us while playing with a pen in his hand. Hmm, shape shifting sounds fun. I could pretend to be Giles and tell Buffy incoherent phrases in a stuffy English accent. "Wait a half a moment." I'll try to contain myself. "I had a chum at Oxford—Carlyle. Advanced degrees in entomology and mythology."

"Entomo—who?" Buffy was a bit confused, and so was I. I knew what mythology was but wasn't really familiar with entomology.

"Bugs and fairy tales." Go on, Mr. Giles. "If I recall correctly, poor old Carlyle—just before he went mad—claimed there was some beast-"

Just then, Willow's computer beeped, causing the four of us to stir and face her. "Buffy, 911! Blayne's mom called the school. He never came home last night!" Yikes, that doesn't sound good. "If Miss French is responsible for—Xander's supposed to be helping her right now. He's got a crush on a giant insect!"

"I've gotta warn him. With any luck, he'll still be on campus. You guys try to keep Ms. French on campus or something." I jumped from my seat and grabbed for my bag on the back of my seat.

"No, we need to hack onto the coroner's office. We need an autopsy on Dr. Gregory. I'm trying to figure out these marks I saw on his corpse. I'm thinking they were teeth." Buffy then proceeded to hold up the textbook she was digging through and showed the rest of us a rather disgusting picture of the thing's fangs. "These cuddlies should definitely be brushing after every meal." Yuck. "And Giles, were saying something about a beast?"

"I just need to make one transatlantic telephone call. Oh, and um, this computer invasion that Willow's performing on the coroner's office; one assumes this is entirely legal..."

"Entirely."

"Of course."

"Absolutely."

We all agreed in unison before Giles shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Right. Wasn't here. Didn't see it...couldn't stop you."

Buffy winced before replying back. "Good idea."

**B U F F Y**

"Xander." I greeted as I caught up to him. I was right, he was still on campus. Thank God... "So, how'd it go with 'Hot For Teacher'?"

"It's a bit demanding being her absolute favorite guy in the universe, but I'll muddle through." he answered sarcastically alongside a cocky grin and hop in his step.

"Bully for you. But you gotta believe me—I'm thinking she's not who she claims to be."

"I know. She's just so much more." Not what I was getting at, but I can see this won't be easy for him to believe.

"Look, you know this town is full of the unexplained." He nodded along, as if he had no idea where I was going with this. "I—we—I just _don't_ think she's all that human. I'm thinking she's kind of a big, creepy bug...with whore lips." He chuckled at the idea and his laughter built up from there. "I'm not joking, Xander. I know that this sounds _completely—"_

"No, I understand completely." Oh, thank God. But he's not exactly taking it the way I thought he would... "I've met someone and you're worried this would cut into our bud time."

"Not exactly, but—"

"Look, there's nothing I can do about it. There's just this certain chemical thing between Ms. French and me. But don't worry, we'll find some Xander/Eric time and just hang out. And you can tell Willow and Buffy the exact same thing" Okay, now I'm getting a bit agitated here.

"Oh, you caught me, Mr. Harris! I'm worried that you're going to run off with your new girlfriend and we're not going to be friends anymore. _Not _at all that I'm worried you're going to get molested by some creature from the amazonian lagoon and end up like Dr. Gregory. And as statutory-esque and overplayed as this _entire_ scenario is, that is _definitely_ not what's going on here. Xander, if you read your homework last night, you would have learned the word, 'pheromone.' It's this kind of cupid's arrow for bu—"

"Stop calling her that! She's _not_ a bug!" Uh-oh. Now, we're both as flared up as the flaming cheerleader from last week. "She's a woman, okay? And hard as that may be to conceive, an actual woman finds me attractive. Now, I'm well-aware that I'm not some hunky buff guy handing out leather jackets to chilly femme fatales, and while we're on the subject, what the hell kind of girly name is _Angel_?"

"I know you're upset but if this as meant to be as you _think_ it is, you can last one day without doing something stupid. Just promise me that you'll try not to even think about her tonight." I'm hoping a compromise would give us enough time to figure things out by the morning.

"Fine! I'll just go home, lock myself in my room, take off all of my clothes, put the ceiling fan on, and count all of the times it rotates a full 360 degrees! Happy, Eric?" He fumed as we pushed past me and toward the front of the school.

"Fucking _ecstatic_, Xander!"

**B U F F Y**

"How'd it go?" Willow asked me as I walked through the doors of the library, mumbling to myself.

"Well, I'm pretty sure the Vietnam War had less casualties than what just happened in our school's courtyard." Everybody's face became worried with that, so I proceeded. "But I'm pretty sure the deed is done. I got him to swear he would whole himself up in his room tonight. That should give us enough time to figure this out, right?"

"In theory." Buffy answered as she continued to read up on, what I assumed was about, praying mantises. "And if Jeeves over there finds a way to talk to Looney-Bin Carlyle."

Giles was sitting at his desk, calmly speaking into his phone as he fiddled with his glasses.

**B U F F Y**

Two hours later and Giles was in serious rage over the phone call as he paced his office, throwing his arms out in frustration . Willow was that much closer into sneaking her way into hacking private domain, and Buffy and I were trying to find some sort of way to, maybe, defeating Medusa's creepy third cousin twice removed.

"Got it." Willow said calmly as both Buffy and I jumped out of our seats to look at the computer screen. I was scarred with color images of Dr. Gregory's corpse.

"There _are_ teeth marks, which match perfectly the one insect that nips off its prey's head." Buffy looked back and forth between the computer's images and the fang picture from earlier today. "It's also the way they mate. The female bites off the male's head while they're-"

"Fang-banging?" I added, actually contemplating which of the two pictures was less creepy.

"No, no, no, see. Xander is—I like his head. It's where you find his eyes and his hair and his adorable smile." Aww, Willow was gushing. Freaking out but still gushing. It was cute to see her finally say some of these things out loud.

"Hey, hey, take it easy, Will." Buffy tried to comfort Willow, but she still looked just as worried as when we all first learned about vampires. "Xander isn't in any danger."

"Yeah, remember? I locked him away in his tower. He'd have to let down his hair at even the slightest chance of leaving. He's probably safe at home as we speak." She gave me a small smile, but I knew she wasn't completely convinced. And to be honest, neither was I. Something told me there was something wrong here. I don't think either of us will be totally at ease until we see Xander in person and with his head firmly on his shoulders.

"Dr. Ferris Carlyle spent years transcribing a lost, pre-Germanic language." Giles came out of his office and looking completely drained from the phone call he just made. "What he discovered, he kept to himself. That is, until several teenage boys were murdered in the Cotswolds. Then he went hunting for it."

"Was it our Charlotte?" I asked, wanting him to rather speed things up to the point.

"He called her a 'she-mantis.' This type of creature, the Kleptes-virgo, or virgin thief, appears in many cultures: the Greek sirens, the Celtic sea-maidens."

"Giles, please! We're a bit time-sensitive here!" Buffy exclaimed, wanting the same thing that I did out of Giles—the answer to our problems.

"Well, basically, the she-mantis assumes the form of a beautiful woman and then lures innocent virgins back to her nest."

And with these words, the Buffy-babble took form. "Well, Xander's not a uh...uh...he's-"

"-gonna die!" Willow announced as she quickly got out of her chair and sped across the room telephone.

"Any ideas on how to castrate this thing before it pillages the village of our innocents?" Hopefully, Looney Tunes knew a bit more about this thing than we now do.

"Carlyle recommends cleaving all body parts with a sharp blade."

"It'll be a regular _Friday the 13__th_by the time Buffy gets through with her." I commented, knowing of Buffy's Superman strength and abilities.

"Xander's not home!" Willow exclaimed from the phone, another look of pure terror on her face. "He told his mom he was going to a teacher's house to work on a science project. He didn't tell her where."

"Damn it, Xander. You _promised_ me!" I mumbled under my breath, feeling a bit betrayed. Although, I shouldn't be. I know that it must be those damn pheromones that are making him act all wonky and un-Xander-like.

"See if you can get her address off the substitute rolls." Buffy told Willow as she pulled Giles aside. "Giles, record some bat sonar—fast." When both Giles and I gave her a confused look, she knew she had to elaborate on it. "Bats eat them. A mantis hears sonar, its entire nervous system goes kaplooey."

"Should I bring one of those plastic ponchos they give to people touring the Niagra Falls?"

"It's more internal than external. No splashing of any sort. Giles, you'll find it in the vid lab. It's dark and musty, you'll feel right at home. Go!" Buffy rushed Giles up the steps and contemplated what to do next. She decided getting the weapon was the next thing to do.

A few minutes later and both Giles and Buffy were back. Willow and I were able to locate her address, amongst other things.

"According to Miss French's personnel records, she was born in 1907. She's, like, 90 years old." Ick. Xander had a thing for Granny Mantis.

"And extremely well-preserved." Giles commented off-handedly before we exited the library, Buffy's weapon bag strapped across her shoulder.

**B U F F Y**

Giles car even _smelled_ English. There was a scent of Earl Grey that didn't seem to be leaving any time soon. At least it was better than other people's cars. Our old car had the faintest hint of skunk after my dad once hit one coming back from work. Even after we sold it, they couldn't completely get the stench out.

Within a few minutes, we were at the address. The four of us unbuckled our seatbelts faster than it took for Giles to park properly. Buffy was first on her feet, but the rest of us were close behind. She led us straight up to the front door of the house.

"What now? We don't exactly kick the door down." Giles instructed, already looking for another way in from around the side.

"Yeah. That would be wrong." Buffy said sarcastically before she prepared herself to kick it down. Luckily, just before, the door swung open.

"Hello, dear." An elderly woman with curly white hair and wool sweater greeted us with a very kind face and smile. "I thought I heard—are you selling something?"

"Yes. Confusion. Our slogan is 'Huh?'" I deadpanned, still a bit taken aback by the woman before us. This was no longer the Ms. French we all knew and loathed. Not unless all those years of popping cherries has finally caught up with her.

"I'd like to help you, but you see, I'm on a fixed income." she informed us, my comment obviously not heard by the woman.

Buffy was the first to say something helpful. "I'm looking for Miss French."

"I'm Ms. French."

"Natalie French." Buffy clarified, still bewildered at what was going on here. "The substitute biology teacher...?"

"Goodness. That's me." She smiled warmly, her eyes crinkling with the movement. "I taught for over thirty years. I retired in 1972."

"I can't believe this! She used Ms. French's records to get into the school. She could be anywhere!" Buffy's voice was raised out of both rage and fright for her friend. The four of us changed worried looks, each gulping down any sort of fear we had for Xander.

"No, dear. I'm right here." Sadly, Ms. French was more disorientated than any of the Slayerettes present.

"Thanks, Ms. French. It was nice meeting you. Have a good night!" I rushed out before I gestured for the others to get back in the car.

"What do we do now?" Willow asked, the question on everybody's mind.

"Abject prayer and supplication would spring to mind." Giles said with sarcasm thick in his words. Honestly, though? I had no idea how we were going to find Xander before that ugly beast does something horrible to him.

"I saw her walking past this park with her grocery bags. She _lives_ in this neighborhood!"

"I'm gonna start banging on doors!" I was all with Willow because it didn't really seem like we had anything more to do besides give up, and that was _not _an option.

"No, we do not have time for that!" Buffy then led us blindly to wherever she felt would give us a clue to where Xander might be held captive by now.

A few blocks down and she started taking a sewer grate from its place before telling us she'd be right back and hopping in as if it were the normal thing to do. Then again, we live in Sunnydale. This night _is_ normal around here.

Minutes later and still nothing. "Come on, Buffy!" exclaimed Willow impatiently. I was starting to get fidgety myself. Waiting here is unbearable. Then, we heard her grunting behind us. We all turned around and saw a vampire with thick black braids and his hands tied behind his back.

"Guys, this is Cat Scratch. Cat Scratch, these are the guys." she introduced briefly before she pushed him along the sidewalk roughly.

"Come on! Where is she? I know you know where she is! You're afraid of her, right?" She was trying to agitate it well enough to know exactly whom she was referring to. And without a doubt, there was a shift in the vampire when we reached the front of a white-picket fenced home. Rather ironic, don't you think? "This is her house, isn't it? This is it! Better than radar!"

And before we knew it, the armed vampire was loose and reaching out toward "Buffy!"

She fell backwards, dodging the swift swing of his claws. No time to really get up without being sliced and diced, she couldn't help but crawl backwards in an attempt to keep as much distance from Coyote Ugly. Damn it! We were so focused on the damn grasshopper that we forgot to bring vampire weapons. Stupid! Stupid!

But Buffy was better than that. She was quick-witted and nimble. She broke off a piece from the white-painted fence and stabbed him in the chest, his corpse vanishing into dust on Ms. French's front lawn. Or...Actually, we don't know her real name at this point.

"Heeeelp!" We heard a loud cry for help coming from a basement window. Xander. We all rushed toward it and Buffy kicked it in as quickly as she could before slipping inside with her bag of treats and goodies for the insectoid.

"Let him go!" Buffy exclaimed as the rest of us slid our way in through the busted in window. I saw Willow's horrified face the first I came through. I turned to look at what she was wide-eyed at and fuck, it was scary. A giant green praying mantis. No more, no less than a jumbo-sized combo meal of ick.

Giles, Willow, and I rushed down the stairs to help Xander from his binds as Buffy double-fisted cans of bug spray and drowned the thing in it.

"Help me! Help me!" Blayne cried out from his cage, hoping to get our attention and to see that, of course, he should be first priority.

"Shut up! We're getting to you!" I yelled back, not once taking my eyes off of the thick leather belt wrapped around Xander's wrists.

Buffy was doing her combat dialogue in the background as we finally unhooked Xander from his place. I heard Giles voice loud and clear, but looked over to see that his lips weren't moving. That's when I noticed Buffy was holding up the tape recorder.

"Giles!"

"It's the wrong side!" And bam! That bitch smacked it out of Buffy's hand, sending it flying across the concrete basement floor, Giles scrambling after it. One more swing and Buffy was down, too. I can't focus on this. I have to save Blayne!

Willow and I searched for a way to get him out of his barred cage, but there didn't seem to be a solution. Giant insect hands weren't the best way to put together this cage because some of the bars were loose enough to pull out. I gestured to Willow and she got exactly what I was saying.

Numerous tugs later and one bar unhinged itself from the form.

"Hurry up!" Blayne whimpered impatiently, already retreating to the back of his cage after seeing Buffy down on the floor.

"Does it look like we're taking a goddamn coffee break? Help us!" I exclaimed aggressively while grunting out in exertion at pulling another bar.

The high-pitched whine of sonar filled out ears and it took every ounce of strength in me not to cover my ears and stop what I was doing. With, what I assume would be, a dazed demon, Blayne finally got the guts to scamper over and try to get himself out of the cage.

With the three of us, we were able to get another one loose. He was free to go.

We turned around in time to see Buffy hacking away at the thing without any hesitation. In pieces, Ms. French was on the floor—no more.

Ha! I rhymed!

We regrouped at the base of the stairs, most of us out of breath and wanting to take out time to regain it.

"Well, I'd say it's deceased." Giles commented, holding the tape recorder in his hands. It _was_ still school property, after all.

"And dissected." said Willow as she looked down at the parts to our old sub.

"You okay?" Xander asked Buffy, her panting and sweat still evident from her physical endurance she let loose on the Green Giant. Xandeer then looked over at me with apology thick in his eyes.

"Just for the record, you were were right. I'm an idiot. And God bless you." I grinned at that, the actuality that Xander was safe was finally sinking in. "And thank you guys, too."

"Yeah, really." Blayne agreed, actually sounding sincere. Although, I still wanted to kick him in the crotch and climb back out through the window.

"I'm really glad you're okay. It's so unfair how she only went after virgins." Willow said nonchalantly, Xander's face dropping down from a grin to a look of disbelief. I glanced over at Blayne and he didn't seem to look much different. "I mean, here you guys are, doing the right thing, the smart thing, when a lot of other boys your age-"

Blayne chose that moment to assert his teen masculinity and studly football star reputation "Flag down on that play, baby. I am not-"

"A total librarian. Erm, no offense, Giles." He simply shrugged off my comment, a smile gracing his features as he found the humor that this guy was still denying his lack of having anything to do with the female anatomy.

"Well, isn't this a perfect ending to a wonderful day?" Xander mumbled humorously as he looked around at us in slight embarrassment.

"My dad's a lawyer. Anybody repeats this to anybody, they're going to find themselves facing a lawsuit." Blayne threatened, back to his old self almost immediately.

"Well, I'm certainly convinced Blayne is an enormous man-whore. Anybody else?" I commented with complete sarcasm, poking fun while I could at the douchebad that was Mall comma Blayne.

"I don't think it's bad. I think it's really—" At that moment, Xander decided to pick up the machete from the ground, causing Willow to rethink whatever she was going to say. "—sweet! But certainly nothing I'll ever bring up again." she ended warily as she eyed the blade cautiously.

They shared a quick smirk before Xander turned back toward the rest of the basement and went in the direction of something that resembled a nest made out of spiderwebs. You could clearly see the cream-colored demon eggs among the web. Well, that is before Xander started wailing on it with the weapon.

**B U F F Y**

It was a little over ten minutes since we gave Xander back to his family and we all wet our separate ways. With stakes, of course. But I didn't need it, personally. Buffy and Willow are supposed to call me back once Giles gets them home, so I'm just waiting to check in with them.

My mom wasn't home yet, but I wasn't surprised. It was only around nine. I guess homework would be the only route at this point. Oh, the joy I just felt pulsate through my entire existence...

Luckily, just as I was about to start, the doorbell rang. I doubt it was Angel since he usually took the scenic route through my backyard. I looked through the peephole and saw it was one of the people I used to hang out with a few weeks back.

"Steven." I said aloud, rather surprised to see him. I was never close enough to anybody in the group to actually talk with them outside of school, let alone visit them. But Steven knew where I lived when we first met freshman year and were assigned together for a geography project.

He stared at me with his turquoise eyes and I just stood there, still flabbergasted he was standing on my porch. "Can I come in...?" Steven asked awkwardly, looking at me pointedly.

"Oh, yeah, sorry." I moved a little to let him through the doorway. "So, what brings you here?"

"You, I guess. The group was just wondering why you ditched us." he said a bit angrily, his dirty blonde hair swaying back and forth around his face as he shook his head bitterly. I flinched slightly at his words, but only because I was even surprised they noticed I had left.

"Well, it's not that I didn't like you guys or anything. It's just that we never really hung out or anything like that, so I figured everybody would recoup if I left." The words coming out my mouth felt like the truth to me, but I couldn't but feel guilty at how suddenly I just stopped being around them.

"Look, they're all at the coffee shop down the street if you wanna catch up. If not, just let us know, face-to-face, that you fell out of the group." Steven's words made sense. If anything, I should do it out of respect for them.

"Okay, let me just grab my coat." My coat was sitting on a chair in the kitchen, so I also decided to make a note for my mom telling her I was going out for coffee, just in case she got off early.

"Ready?" Steven asked me as he stood in the same spot where I left him in front of the door. I nodded and we exited, making sure to lock the house up behind me.

"So, they really care that I was even gone?" I asked, laughing slightly at the thought as I put the keys back in my pocket.

"We definitely did." The three others from the former group were standing on the rest of the porch—Katia, Henry, and Gaby.

"Oh, hey! Steven told me you guys were at the coffee shop." I informed them, actually finding myself happy to see them after all this time. It was probably the sense of familiarity to them. Katia spoke up after making me aware of their presence.

"Change of plans." she said, her rich Italian accent seeping with such a dark tone. It sent chills down my spine, but not the good kind. They were the kind that told me something was wrong.

"Oh. Well, that's fine. What do you guys want to-? Oh, shoot! I forgot my wallet. I'll be _right_ back." My voice didn't waver, so I hoped they didn't notice how urgent it was for me to get back inside. I had a stake and pepper spray in my backpack next to the door; one of them was bound to help right now.

"No need." Henry this time. His voice had the same tone to it, as if there was some sinister plan behind it all. It was weird since he always had nothing but niceties for everybody around him. Especially his twin brother, Steven.

"We've got you covered." Gaby. She was actually a bit angrier sounding than the other two with a bit more ferocity to her words. I gulped to myself, my eyes closed as I faced the door, pleading to myself that this wasn't how it seemed. That they weren't what I thought they were.

"Plus, I think I have what you're looking for." My entire body stiffened as Steven spoke up bemusedly. I looked over hesitantly, and sure enough, he was gripping it as he moved it back and forth, mockingly.

I rushed to open the door as fast as I could, but I knew there was no use. But I just had to try.

"And where are _you_ going?" Katia asked me before she forcefully turned me around and pushed me down. My head hit the bottom of the front steps, my body hanging across the three that were there. The top of my face was burning slightly, probably from skidding across the cement so violently. And I could smell the coppery red liquid before as it trickled down the bridge of my nose.

I got up, but that only seemed to entertain them further as I heard their cackles behind me. I made it to the sidewalk before I felt two pairs of hands drag me back toward the porch by my back. My shirt and jacket both rode up, exposing my skin to the rough concrete pathway.

"Let me go!" I knew my pleads were falling upon deaf ears, but it slipped out before I even had a chance to recognize that it was close to being said.

"Not a chance." One of the twins, I think Henry, mentioned before my entire world fell into darkness. I realized that it wasn't from being knocked unconscious but because they slipped something over my head so that I wouldn't be able to see.

My heart was racing faster than it ever had before, causing the blood from my injury to drip down that much more quickly. But that's all I could hear. No noises were around me, at all. Not even the sinister laughter that emanated from all around me a few moments earlier.

Cautiously, I stood up. Maybe somebody came to save me. That glimmer of hope was quickly shattered when I got a knee straight into my gut, knocking the bit of air that was still in my lungs into whatever was blocking me from seeing who had done it.

"Fooled ya."

Before I had a chance to regain my breath, two of them picked me up by the arms and pulled me forward, my legs dragging limply behind me. No! I can't let them take me without a fight. I picked my feet up and attempted to stop in my place, or at least make it more difficult for them to do whatever they planned on doing. I tried squirming my way out of their grip, but that only seemed to make them angry, thus, tightening it.

"Stop struggling or I'll crush your arm into bone meal!" That stopped me quickly, but only long enough for them to push me onto something. My knees collided with the side of it, causing even more pain to the list. They picked those up as well, and shoved them in. They were now tying my arms and legs to one another so that I could only try to inch my way to escape.

There was a slide and a quick bang, making me jump in my place as I tried to breath out from the fabric over my head. An engine started and that's when I realized that I wasn't on anything—I was in something.

**B U F F Y**

**Wanted to keep you guys in suspense for once, so I'm leaving it there!**

**Glad to be back on my game, even if this episode had one of my Top 5 Creepiest Buffy Monsters. I made Eric hate insects, just like I do. So look at that! You learn something new about me every time you don't even want to!**

**Would love some feedback, so go right ahead and review me!**

**Love you guys to itty-bitty pieces! Sayonara!**


	4. Chapter IV: Stupid Ankle Biters

**Hola! Thanks for the reviews, funky party people! I loved every second of it.**

**And now! For the conclusion to Eric's little misadventure!**

**Just to clarify, this whole thing that happens with Eric happens between the episodes "Teacher's Pet" and "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date".**

**And now for my review replies!**

**KafeiDetour: Yes! It has been awhile! And it has yet again! Glad you enjoyed last chapter, though!**

Brilliant Comet: Eek, I'm so sorry! I honestly didn't mean to have so many months go by without an update! Life just gets in the way, sometimes. Again, truly sorry for the wait!

**Skreech: Thank you for the compliments; I'm glad you enjoyed me veering off from any of the episodes. To be honest, the ending was kind of an experiment to see how people enjoyed me going off-track. I'm glad it was appreciated, though! And I am completely apologetic about the long wait! I hope this makes it up to you!**

**The Founder: Wait no longer! Here it is! :D**

spiritofthecrane: I've seen that alien language before. Let me see if I can reply well enough for you to understand. Tanks! Thee pisode freakd meout too! I gate buggs! Glady ou likked it, thoogh! I kid, I kid. Hope you didn't take that offensively, I was only joking :)

**Ahsaze: Again, so sorry for the long update! And wow, that's quite a bit of speculation you have there! Read on and see if any of what you said came true! :D**

KwC1994: Thank you so much! I have put a lot of time into this story, and I'm glad it's up to par for my readers! I actually do nothing BUT original characters, usually. I feel it's a great way to introduce new readers into the story who might have never even watched an episode of Buffy or whatever it is I might be writing for. Can we define "soon" as "within four and a half months, because I've got you covered! :D

**Remus san: Thank you! I'm glad you think so. It's actually a personal compliment to me because I seem to put a lot of my traits into my original characters haha.**

**LonelyElf: Hope you like where this story is going now. And yes, I'm aware of most of the typos after reading them recently on the site. I really tried not to have any here and hope that's the case for this chapter.**

**Remus san (Again?): I love your enthusiasm for him! 1. That's a given—he's badass! 2. I agree! But it's gonna take some convincing, for sure. 3. While Xander and Willow might not have gotten together, I would like to think that Xander and Eric have a different connection with each other, i.e. not as much history with each other so they can take that wherever. As for Angel, I know! No sex! I'm trying to find ways around that but I honestly don't see them. I'll have to see where that goes. And sorry, but I'm not an Angelus fan haha. That's not gonna be on the table, but of course, he's a _huge_ part of the storyline, so he will have plenty of interactions with Eric and the rest of the Scooby Gang. And _PLEASE_ do _not_ apologize for long reviews! I welcome them with giant open arms, a tub of free popcorn, and confetti cannons! :D**

**agd888: Thanks! And I've finally updated! Yay!**

KwC1994 (Again!): Hi! Yup, definitely continuing on. But of course you know that now because here you are, on this page with the fourth chapter. Hope you like it!

**Enjoy, lovelies!**

** Y**

I couldn't really tell how long we drove for, or how many turns we took. I couldn't hear much over the loud radio speakers playing oldies. Although, there was a small voice over the lyrics, singing them back lightly.

The entire ride, my body ached and throbbed in pain. I'm pretty sure I had blood trickling down my face somewhere because the entire fold of fabric that covered my head absolutely reeked of iron and salt. I felt light-headed, almost like I was drunk. But if I were, then the pain wouldn't be so bad. Luckily enough, though, the ride was long enough for me to pull myself together and not show any fear or pain—I couldn't let them have that kind of satisfaction anymore.

We came to a slow stop, the brakes screeching to signify it. And it wasn't another stoplight because the rumbling from the engine had turned off.

The rough slide of the van's door told me that they didn't miraculously forget all about me.

"Come on, maggot." One of the twins said, a smile evident in his tone.

"Oh, so I'm in military school! Oh, thank God! I thought you were all going to kill me!" I quipped through the thick, burlap fabric. At least I still had that left in me.

"Funny guy, huh?" A right hook to the jaw and I could taste blood in my mouth almost instantaneously. I had the urge to spit it out, but it would have just splattered against the material.

"I get the vague sense that you don't like my humor." I smirked to myself before the sack was lifted from my head and Henry glared ferociously into my eyes. He pulled me along across a gravel street and into a secluded trailer.

"Oh, come on! Did you guys read a handbook on how to be the stereotypical villains?" My comment came from the fact that there was a wooden chair in the middle of an empty room and a single, dim light overhead it.

The others came from beyond a door frame and gathered around me. They forced me into the chair and each did their part in tying me up in it, unable to move my limbs. They didn't feel the need to hide their vampire features any longer, their fangs gleaming in the slits of moonlight coming in through a window.

"So, we're gonna eat you soon." Gaby informed me bemusedly, her tongue running over her elongated canines. The others grinned and chuckled around me, obviously having a good time.

"Well, that's anti-climactic! You're trying to tell me that you beat me senseless, kidnapped me, tied me up to a chair in a dingy 'Villains For Dummies' _lair_, and I use that term lightly, just so you could have done something that was perfectly acceptable to do out on my front lawn? I mean, you guys could have saved on gas money!" Babbling 101. I needed to buy as much time as possible so that I could figure out a way out of here.

"No, we're saving you for when the boss is ready." I wanna say that was Henry, but, in all honesty, I couldn't give less of a fuck at this point at trying my hand at identifying the differences between the Walker twins. I just need to keep them going as I continue thinking.

"'The boss'? Really?! Oh, come_ on_! How much more cliché can you guys ge-"

"Shut _up_!" I heard Katia yell in agitation before I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and everything turned to darkness.

** Y**

I can't believe Xander and I were assigned as partners! This is gonna be amazing! My mom is gonna bake us brownies and I begged my dad to bring pizza home with him for Xander and I—life is definitely good right now!

And before I knew it the doorbell was ringing. I swiftly made my way to the front door, unable to completely contain my excitement.

I opened the door and Xander Harris was standing with a smile on his face on my porch—_my _porch! I looked behind him to greet whoever had dropped him off, but they sped away before I even got the chance. They must have somewhere important to be. Maybe Xander's parents are co-presidents of some stellar corporation.

"Hey, Eric. I brought some notes from class to help us out. I mean, not that there's any chance of them helping us out considering they're mostly just drawings of sharks gnawing at Mr. Levitz, but they might end up proving useful if this were based off of visual aids." There was that Xander babble he was always known for. I could feel myself grinning uncontrollably as I let out a small chuckle.

"Hahaheheha!" That was supposed to be a _small chuckle_, Eric! What the heck was that?! It sounded like that breathing exercise in that wicked gross birthing video from class last week!

Trying to regain control of the situation, I cleared my throat and invited him inside. He smiled graciously and came in, his backpack slung over his right shoulder.

"Hi, I'm Eric's mom." My mother greeted Xander, wiping her hands on her crimson apron I bought her for her birthday. The words 'Live, Laugh, Love' written in black cursive letters, her hand smearing bits of brownie batter onto the first and last words.

"Hi, Mrs. Lobes. I'm Xander Harris. I go to school with your son. I mean, obviously. I-I—it would be weird for us to have a project together and not go to the same school, right?" As he tried for recovery, all I could think of was that he actually knew my last name. I wasn't just some kid he helped out back in first grade.

"Anyway, Mom, we should get started on our project. No time like the present!" I rushed out before I led Xander to my bedroom.

"My dad got me this set of encyclopedias that we can use." I said, informing him of my extensive collection as we entered my room and he sat his belongings on my bed; A-Z, thank you very much!

"Oh, cool! It would be so great to not have to go to the library to do homework." Xander said as he reached for the largest encyclopedia—the letter S.

"Y-you could, you know, _borrow_ them whenever you need it for school. Or you could—you could even come here to do your homework and stuff..." Well, not perfectly executed, but a pat on the back for that one, Eric!

"Really? That'd be awesome." Xander replied as he looked up from the book with a goofy grin that could only be described as a Xander smile. He then looked back down and flipped a few more pages before letting out a series of devious chuckles. Intrigued, I asked him what he was laughing at. "They have 'sexual intercourse' in here." he said, continuing his fit of laughter as he went through the book's contents.

He then stopped at a certain page. I peered over the book and read 'sexuality' upside down. 

"You know, my dad says Mr. Levitz is gay. I can't imagine even looking at guys like that. It'd be really weird for me, I think. Don't you?" My heart dropped almost immediately. Xander never looked up from the book and I'm glad he didn't because I'm sure I looked devastated right now. A confirmation that he and I would never be together. But he was still here, in my room, and I couldn't let that get to me right now. So I said the first thing that came to mind.

"No way! That's totally bizarre!" Really, Eric? Not only that but he chuckled in agreement and continued looking through the book for 'sharks', completely unknowing of the uncomfortable mood change I was experiencing. I began fidgeting a bit more and I just wanted to get this night over with so I could put on my Mazzy Star cassette tape and just pretend today was a dream.

But no, I stuck it out through the project and we ended up finishing our report before my dad had even gotten back with the pizza. Although, Xander had scarfed down at least five brownies in that time frame.

"Xander, I think your mother is here!" My mom called from the kitchen with a tone of surprise. Xander gave a confused look to nobody in particular as he stuffed his notebook into his backpack. We both walked to the front of the house, although I more sluggishly than he, and he peered outside one of the windows.

"That's weird. Don't know why she's early, but I should get going." Xander's words gained emphasis when there was an impatient honking coming from outside. Xander closed his eyes for a few brief moments, almost preparing himself, before saying goodbye to my mother and getting into his own mom's car. I could hear Mrs. Harris yelling from my front door, not even attempting to censor herself before her son had even closed his car door. They drove away and I was left on my front porch feeling like crap.

"Did you boys get the report done?" My mom called from behind me, although I didn't really feel like turning around as I continued staring at the spot where Xander's car had driven away moments ago.

"Yeah, we did." I said meekly before shutting the door. "We should get a good grade on it." I told her as I turned around and gave her the biggest smile I could muster. It must not have been enough because my mom looked at me, worried for her son. She had asked if I was alright but I brushed her off, lying to her by saying I was just tired.

"Alright, well your dad should be here soon. I don't know what could be taking him so long." I shrugged and just went to my room without another word.

The fluffy pillow on my bed that usually brought me nothing but comfort and serenity just felt void of either today. I felt the tears pooling behind my closed lids but I couldn't bring myself to cry over something so stupid. I mean, I'll be over him before I know it, right? There are plenty of other guys at school and it was only a matter of time before I moved onto another one.

Yeah, I'm sure of it.

Before I knew it, it was eleven o' clock. I woke up and instantaneously felt everything all over again as if it had just happened a few moments ago. I got up from bed, suddenly feeling a bit thirsty. What was weird was that I didn't hear the living room TV in the background like I always did at this time of night.

I stared into the room, but nobody was there. I was expecting to see my dad there watching whatever happened to be on TV at this time, but he wasn't. I disbelievingly walked to the kitchen, now knowing he must be stuffing his face with pizza.

But I was wrong.

Instead, my mom was sitting at the kitchen table, her hand running roughly through her chestnut curls, the other clutching our phone as if it were a lifeline.

"Where's dad?" I asked softly, however the volume didn't seem to matter much because she was still startled at the sound of my voice.

She huffed a shaky breath before answering. "I don't know, sweetie. I just don't know..." Her reply was trembling on her dry lips, almost catching in her throat. "I mean, I called his office but they said he already left, so I called the pizza place and they told me he had already picked up the order. He should _be_ here by now."

The telephone rang in my mother's grasp, this time, startling us both. "H-hello? Oh, Lyla. No, no—nothing yet. Uh-uh..." My mother's voice trailed from behind me as I made my way into the living room. It was completely dark in the room, nobody being present to have turned them on. I didn't feel the need to do so, either.

I curled up on a spot on the couch and closed my eyes, my mind forming millions of scenarios, none of them good. I sat there with my eyes closed for what felt like forever, only wanting to open them when I knew my dad was home. The distressed voice of my mother filled my ears as she continued to make and receive phone calls to and from neighbors, friends—whomever would be of use.

The next thing I knew, the clock chimed loudly, notifying me that it had turned midnight. But that couldn't be right, so I opened my eyes to make sure of it but I was only greeted with dim red and blue flashing lights shining in through the window behind me as they danced along the walls.

I let out a whisper so soft and so quiet, I wasn't even sure I had even made a sound.

"Dad?"

There was a deafening knock at the door, but I was too frightened to get up and answer. My mom rushed to it, probably thinking it was her husband who had foolishly lost his keys. She saw the mocking bright lights against our TV panel much too late.

"Mrs. Lobes. We believe we found your husband's car abandoned on the side of the road. However, there were blood splatters on the inside of the vehicle that we think may belong to him." At that point, my mother started crying, but still trying to contain herself. "However, we could not find your husband. We searched the area, but there was no sign of him."

In the pit of my stomach, I just knew that they would never find him.

** Y**

And they never did.

Because I killed him.

I awoke with a huge hammering at my head, the pain only increased as I attempted to open my eyes and was greeted with the soft buzzing of the bulb above me that gave away too much light, even though I'm pretty sure it was the same amount as before. It brought on a horrible bout of dizziness I just couldn't shake off.

I winced at the pounding in my head, the pain even masking the stinging from all of the cuts and wounds from earlier. Although, how much earlier that was, I wasn't sure. I tried to swallow, but what I thought was gathered saliva in my mouth was mostly just blood. I sputtered at it, coughing as some of it entered my wind pipe.

"Glad to see you're awake, Eric." I knew that voice! I struggled to open my eyes, but when I did, I saw him standing in the corner. My savior.

"Angel!" I smiled, unable to suppress the utter relief I felt from seeing him there, even if the room was still spinning. He somehow found me and dusted all of the vamps! "Oh, my God. I'm so happy that you're he—"

"'Angel'? What kind of fruity name is 'Angel'?" he chuckled out. I squinted toward the figure and it somehow morphed completely into one of the twins. Steven.

I closed my eyes, fighting the emotional pain at the realization that it was just a delusion that was probably caused from my head wound. I thought I was saved from this Hell, but I'm not. And that alone was enough to make me break down.

But I wasn't going to let it.

"You don't like it? Too bad because I was thinking that once I get out of here and kick your asses, I was gonna make you my prison bitch—makeup, wig, and all. Now, I'll just have to kill you like I will the rest of them." I let out a confident chuckle, even though that was exactly the opposite of what I felt at the moment. In fact, I felt completely weak and powerless.

I heard footsteps clomp there way toward my spot in the middle of the room and before I knew it, I was punched across my face, feeling the bruises clump against my cheekbone. The force toppled over the chair and, of course, me along with it, my head taking the majority of the force as I landed.

"_You_ want to make _me_ your bitch? Try the other way around, _Erica_." And with that, I felt my shirt being ripped open, the cold night air burning at my bare skin like dry ice. But I felt it—a chair leg holding my right arm down snapped. I looked up at Steven to see if he had noticed, but he was too fixated on humiliating me. This was my opportunity, probably my only one—I had to make it count.

With all of the force that I could muster, my right arm ripped through the air and toward Steven's chest, the pointy end of the remaining piece of the chair stabbing him.

But no ash. Just blood.

At this point, I could feel my chin trembling. All hope was lost. I was dead.

"You mother_fucker_!" Steven exclaimed as he wrenched the makeshift stake from his chest with a soft squish, blood droplets falling to the floor.

"You deserved it. The interior decorating in here is fucking _atrocious_." I seethed. Even though I knew I wasn't getting out of here alive, I couldn't help but continue to fight, even if it was just with my words.

"No. No..._No_!" Steven seemed to be having an inner-conflict, his animosity seemingly winning over. "I will _not_ wait for the damn boss to get here for you. I'm going to make you mine for eternity so that I can torture you every day for the rest of your pathetic existence..."

A long pause rested in the air as he was trying to make sure of his decision, pacing back and forth as if still fighting the urge to give in.

Silence.

"Does that mean I get to graduate early?" He then groaned agitatedly and reached to grab me from my shoulders.

"Nope." A voice came from behind Steven, causing him to whip around. He jumped back slightly, but stopped to groan. And then nothing but dust. "You still have three more grueling years."

And as the ashes settled, Angel's form appeared in front of me. My mouth was agape. Was this actually happening? Was Angel really here? Or was my mind playing tricks on me again?

"A-A-An...Angel?" Please, don't be wrong. Please...just...give me this one...But he said nothing. He just swiftly untied me, the ease from the tension of the rope giving me instant euphoria because it must be true; I was saved.

He hoisted me up onto my feet, but that's when I felt a pain in my leg for the first time and groaned from the agony. I looked down and the portion of denim near the back of my ankle was bleeding, a lengthy yet thin piece of leftover wood sticking out from it. "Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop." I rushed out before we could go any further.

Angel said nothing before gently picking me up from my feet, bridal style and leaving this horrid place. However, that didn't stop the physical pain. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, everything was hitting me like a ton of bricks. And quite frankly, I would go as far as to say that I would take that phrase literally at this time because _everything _hurt.

"Guess you really swept me off my feet today, huh, Angel?" I joked as I grit my teeth. Although, the joke was more for my own comfort, my attempt at slipping back into normalcy as I tried to take my mind off of my injuries; _attempt _and _tried_ being the operative words. However, Angel was too focused on getting me out of there to acknowledge that.

I must have been focusing pretty hard myself, trying not to feel any of the pain that came with tonight's festivities, because we were at my house in what felt like no time.

"Eric!" A voice called from my kitchen. I expected it to be my mother and that I would really have some explaining to do, but I was relieved to see Willow and Xander there. Both of them had a look of complete worry as they looked over any and all of my exposed wounds.

"Hey, guys! Forgive me for being out so late. I think I partied too hard tonight." I feigned a laughter, but that only proved badly for me because as it rumbled through me, it only made all of my injuries more apparent. I couldn't control the wince of pain that escaped my lips.

"We have to get that splinter out before we can set him down properly." Angel informed them as he motioned his head toward my leg.

"What splin—Oh, my _God_! Why would you consider that a splinter, still? That's like an entire redwood!" Willow exclaimed as she examined it. Then, she looked over at me apologetically. "I mean...it's tiny..._teeny_-tiny..."

"Well, I'm convinced..." I muttered as Xander went into the hall bathroom and came out with a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a clean wash cloth, and a box of ACE bandages. "Oh, fuck my life..." I forgot that I had to clean all of my open wounds. And that included the one from the Lincoln Log sticking out of my foot.

Xander wrapped his hand with the towel and reached for the piece of wood. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah, go ahead." I said aloud, my teeth already gritting from what I would imagine the pain will feel like. I already felt my grip on Angel's leather jacket tighten.

And in one quick motion, all Hell broke loose.

"Ugh! You fucking _bastard—_get the _hell_ out of my house!" I yelled, the blood already rushing to get out from the wound. "Damn it..." I cursed into Angel's chest. I'm pretty sure if I had gritted my teeth anymore, I would have cracked a tooth. And I can't rock that look.

"Love you, too, Eric." Xander joked as he threw the wood into the trash can, making an audible clatter as it hit the bottom of the bin. Glad I took the trash out before my mo-

"Oh, no! Where's my mom?!" I exclaimed loudly as Angel took me in the direction of my bedroom, the pictures hanging as nothing but a blur as I erratically searched for her.

"She should still be at work; it's only eleven o' clock." Angel informed me as he gently set me down on my bed right after Willow had laid down a few towels so that I wouldn't stain my sheets with my own blood.

"I was only there for 2 hours?! Angel, we gotta go back—I need to beat my high score!" I teased as I seethed at the feel of my weight on top of a few of my injuries, some of the bruises feeling bunched compared to the rest of my skin.

"Where's Buffy?" The question was directed toward Willow and Xander before the former answered Angel. Apparently, she was out looking for me after she saw my front door was open, blood on the pathway, and the note to my mom in the kitchen, realizing there was a struggle.

"Somebody has to find her and tell her I'm okay." I told them as I tried to sit up, a pain in my lower back prevented me from doing so. I groaned before giving up on the matter, the group looking at me concernedly. "Nothing a couple of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Band-Aids won't fix."

"You shouldn't be moving so much." Willow said as she started to pour a bit of alcohol onto the bunched up paper towels in her hand. Oh, God—why do wounds have to be cleaned?

"She's right. You could have broken something." Xander added on, his voice slightly worried as he unwrapped a lengthy ACE bandage from its box.

"No, guys; I promise that I'm fi—Good _GOD_! A warning would have been absolutely _heavenly_, Willow!" The alcohol burned at my exposed flesh, painfully cleaning any affected area. I opened my eyes after having shut them in pain and Willow had an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry. I...I don't do pain very well..." I apologized as I panted ever-so lightly. I could feel a film of sweat gather at my brow and the top of my naked chest. If this were any other time, I know I would be blushing at that realization, but I'm pretty sure my blood is being used to torment me in all other areas of my body right now. "But really, somebody needs to find her. Mr. Walks-In-The-Shadows, you're our best bet at doing just that."

Angel looked from me to my best friends warily, not sure if he should, in fact, leave me in their care. I looked at him pointedly and Angel nodded his head and was on his way, exiting my bedroom as gracefully and soundlessly as he always did.

"Who did this, anyway?" Xander asked as he gingerly wrapped up my bruised forearm.

"Some old high school buddies turned creatures of the night. Lovely reunion. There were mini-quiches!"

"God, Eric—that's horrible. How many?" Willow sympathized as she dragged my computer chair to sit beside me as she lightly patted the cuts on my face with a wet rag. Judging by the stinging, my guess was that it wasn't water.

"A couple dozen. They had bacon in them, too."

"The vampires, you kook." Willow smiled softly as she dabbed at any visible red cuts.

"About three or four of them." Angel answered for me as he and Buffy entered the room. She stood next to Angel as she surveyed my body and how many injuries I might have.

"That's not all, though." I motioned Willow kindly to stop for the moment so that I could explain. "They mentioned there was a boss. My guess is another fellow classman of 1999. Still coming up with zilch on the 'who' portion of it all."

"Did they say anything else?" Buffy questioned me, her arms crossed in full Slayer-mode.

"They said they were going to eat me once he got there, so that's not really a giveaway." I mentioned as I continued going through the experience piece-by-piece. "Oh! They drove a van!"

"He's right. There was a van parked close by." Angel said, Buffy turning her attention toward him. Their eyes met for a few moments longer than what was normal, so I turned my attention to Xander and Willow in order to avoid it. Willow looked on at them, her face giving away that she was trying to piece things together and Xander just looked on at the two with anger and irritation. Although, he might have just been looking at Angel.

"If you guys could get the license plate number, I'm sure I can find out who owns it." Willow spoke up, both Buffy and Angel turning to her. They both nodded before Angel looked over at me.

"Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I'm a glass-half-full kinda guy." I said with a small smile playing on my lips. "Me and my buds kicking back and getting high off of the fumes from a bottle of rubbing alcohol."

"Sounds like a normal Thursday night for us." Xander added with a smirk, making me smile a bit broader.

"Alright, we'll be back soon, guys." Buffy announced before leaving the room with Angel.

After about ten minutes of wound tending and minor banter, I needed to get out of bed. "Okay, I'm getting up now." I told the two before pushing myself up slightly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Either there's a fire you're hallucinating or you're just crazy because you're definitely not getting up." Xander's voice was commanding as he pulled me back down from the short progress I already made.

"Look, I have to pee. So unless both of you want to do it for me, I only see this being a one-man kind of job..."

"Alright, but we're at least helping you _to_ the bathroom. Your foot still looks pretty bad."

"Willow, you guys have to stop babying me." I told them as I slowly rotated my limbs over the edge of my bed. My first step off on my healthy foot was fine. Next was my gimp leg. Lift aaaannnd... "See? I'm fine, you guys. A steady limp can get me anywhere within mediocre time."

"Yeah, yeah, Flo Jo. Just hurry up so you can rest again." Xander teased as I closed the door behind me. And the second I did, I gripped onto my sink and let out a a huff of air from all of the pain. Nope, my foot is definitely not okay. But they need to go home once Buffy and Angel get back. I can't have them take care of me.

I looked down out my leg and, sure enough, I was starting to bleed through the bandage. Okay, definitely need more so they don't notice. I ran the water from the sink so that it could muffle out the noise of me sifting through my cabinet. But then I remembered that if I remove the original bandage, it will stop any of the healing that already happened. I silently cursed to myself and just decided to go over the physical damage done to me.

My reflection showed that there was a long cut along my hairline, but nothing that needed any stitches. Although, my foot probably did. There were bruises along my jaw and cheekbone and they had already started to swell. I lifted my shirt and there was large clump of discoloration along the right side of my abdomen. Any injuries that I had on my back were obviously not accessible, but I already knew there must have been tiny scabs along the lower region of my back from being dragged along the concrete so roughly.

All of this, I can take care of myself. But the stitching would probably need to be done by somebody. Wait, do we even go to doctor's in these situations? I mean, I'm not in serious need of medical attention, but still. What are we even supposed to say to them? 'I'm just so clumsy! I fell down my stares and stabbed myself in the foot with a stray piece of wood. I'm so zaney!' I highly doubt that would fly with the doctors.

Before they could suspect anything, I leaned over to push down the handle on my toilet and a wave of pain rushed through foot. God, am I really that dense? I shifted my weight to my _good_ foot and succeeded in flushing this time around. I turned off the water and gazed at myself one last time, prepping myself to not show any sign that I was in pain. A breath of air out of me and a slight slump to my shoulders and I looked fine.

I left the bathroom and made it back onto my bed without them noticing the constant pulses of pain coming from my ankle. Lucky for me, the walk was short and the relief from my foot being raised once again was intoxicating.

Before much longer, the duo got back with a piece of paper that they must have scribbled down the license on. They handed it to Willow and she immediately went over to my computer to turn it on and begin her search. I happened to glance over at the clock and saw it was almost time for my mom to get home.

"You guys have to go home. I need her thinking that I'm asleep."

"He's right. She can't see him like this." Buffy agreed authoritatively. "I'll stay here, stitch him up, and take care of him."

"No, I'll do it." Angel spoke up from the corner of my room he was standing in. "You guys have school tomorrow and need to rest up so we can find whoever 'the boss' is."

"That's sweet for you to concern yourself with our classes, Mr. Rodgers, but that's not really our priority right now." Buffy was more forceful now, shifting from one foot to another, looking irritable in her stance.

"He's right, Buffy." I interjected before Angel continued on. "I need you guys to cover for me at school until I can go back, anyway. My mom isn't going to be able to call in my absence, so just make sure that we've got all of our bases covered."

"We can't leave you alone with this guy; you barely know him!" Xander said as he got up from his spot on the floor and gestured to Angel.

"He saved my life today, Xander. Pretty sure he proved himself." He then looked frustrated and turned his back toward both Angel and I, probably thinking of another way around it. "Xander, come on. I can take care of him if he turns out to be evil." He turned to me, his eyes growing softer. "I stabbed a vampire tonight. I mean, sure I missed his heart, but pretty sure the stabbing would do the trick on a human. Even L.A. Looks over there." I smirked teasingly, not even bothering to look over at Angel to know that there was a small grin on his face. Xander, however, didn't crack a smile. He still looked concerned about the situation.

"Fine. But I'm coming right after school to make sure you're not dead." He didn't so much as suggest it as inform the room of his plans.

"Okay...unless the rest of the gang needs help to investigate..." He glared at me, slack jawed. "Sorry, but that's kind of how our world works now, Xander. Baddies first, crippled friends second." I gave him a sympathetic smile before rushing my friends out of my house before my mom gets home. Hell, I still needed time for Angel to stitch me up.

Angel gathered the supplies he needed before kneeling down at the foot of my bed so that he was at eye-level with my wound.

"How bad is this going to hurt, exactly?" I tried to keep my voice as steady as possible, already fearing the pain that's gonna come from it.

"Depends on your threshold." he informed me in a calm voice before he sterilized the needle.

My eyes grew wider at that little bit of information. "Oh, my God, I'm gonna die..." I said dramatically, chuckling lightly afterward even though I found no humor in what was about to happen.

Then, the click of the front door caught both of our attentions. My mother was home already. I heard her heeled footsteps clack against the hardwood, but not getting any louder. She must have gone straight to the kitchen.

"We're gonna have to wait until morning, Angel. You saw me earlier; I'm not exactly stoic when I'm in pain."

"No, we can't. It could get infected overnight. We have to do it now." His voice was hard, but he met my gaze with soft, sympathetic brown eyes. "I need you to do this." I nodded warily, grasping at the towel underneath me to clump up if I needed it.

He threaded the needle and lined it with the bottom of the flesh wound. Angel looked back up at me for confirmation and I gave it to him so that he could begin.

And begin he did. It wasn't so much the pain of the needle going into my skin as much as it was the two sides of my exposed wound coming together that hurt the most. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but it still hurt like a bitch.

I winced slightly as more of it came together, feeling the thread drag along the inside of my ankle.

And before I knew it, it was over. I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding out as the burning sensation of my white blood cells coming to the rescue started in.

"I'm guessing that wasn't your first time." I joked as Angel handed me a cup of water he had gotten from my bathroom. I sipped at it, not really all that thirsty in the first place but I wanted to get the lingering iron taste out of my mouth.

"Nope. A lot of battle wounds in my time." He said softly as he brought over the desk chair to sit next to me.

"Right. Fork guy..." I replied, gesturing toward his arm. No, the bandages weren't visible but there's no way they weren't still there. He smirked slightly in acknowledgment.

"You should get some rest." he informed me in a small mumble so that my mom wouldn't pick up any voices. Sleeping was probably for the best, though. Resting was the best way to recover quickly, and I sure as hell did not want to stay in my bed for longer than I had to.

"Fine, but so should you. If they find out whoever this boss person is, I want you there to kick his ass twice as hard for me." Angel was up out of his chair at this point and looked into my closet before finding a blanket and covering me with it. "Did you want to read me a bedtime story, too?" I teased, one of my eyebrows raised at his behavior. He chuckled before reaching for a book and sitting back down. My face dropped, an eyebrow raised at his actions. "Angel, I wasn't being serious."

Angel replied with a slight chuckle before turning over to the first page. "It's for me. I'm not really tired yet."

"Oh." That was all I could even think of replying with because I felt slightly embarrassed for thinking that he was actually going to read me to sleep. But before I could even do that, I had to get this out of the way.

"Thank you." I interrupted the dead silence, looking over at him. He looked up from the book and held my gaze. "For tonight. For saving me. For taking care of me. Just...thank you..." I could feel myself want to look away from him out of embarrassment, but I wanted Angel to know how sincere I was, so I looked into his eyes the entire time.

"You don't need-"

"No, I do." I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times, unable to find the right words. "You...I...I just...I was pretty positive after that last attempt at getting out of there that I was going to die tonight. But that's just the life in this town, I guess..." I trailed off, trying to hold back any sort of tears that might spill, but I think the best I did was keep them from falling, but I felt my eyes turn glossy. "But yeah, I'm just really thankful that you were there to save me."

"You're welcome." He answered genuinely, his eyes still fixated on my own. I felt myself unable to breathe, but only because of the intensity in his fixed stare. Okay, that's enough emotion for one night, Eric. I turned my head back to a straight position and closed my eyes as I let myself get comfortable with my head laid on top of the pillow.

Silence.

** Y**

I woke up to darkness. Not the same darkness as last night, but there wasn't much light entering my bedroom. I glanced over to my window to see that the shades were down and my curtains were pulled shut. Angel seemed to be going out of his way to make sure I rested more than I wanted to. I looked around the room, but I couldn't find him. Although, his jacket was draped over my chair, so I knew he was still in my house.

I got up to move, but everything was much more stiff and sore from last night. I let out a tiny groan as I pulled myself out of bed and onto my good leg, hopping over to the bathroom to do my morning routine.

Even menial tasks like brushing my teeth seemed to hurt slightly, but that's okay because I knew I was okay and that this pain was just temporary.

I left my bathroom, my mouth finally tasting of something other than blood, and Angel was standing by the door, making me jump slightly, losing my balance. Luckily, the door frame was there for me to balance myself.

"Sorry." Angel apologized before helping me back to my bed. I groaned inwardly at the thought of spending more time in it. Not exactly what I wanted to be doing at the moment.

"What time is it?"

"Six o' clock. Your mom left about half an hour ago." He informed me as he made sure my foot was elevated enough.

"Yup, that's usually the case." I said as I laid my head back against the pillow, already sick of being cared for like this.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I can run a marathon." I sighed heavily, my bruises making sure I felt my chest rise and fall. Thanks! That's very kind of you guys! "Sorry, I just...I don't like being waited upon and just sitting here being useless."

"I know, but it's for the best right now." I huffed at that, not really wanting to argue because I knew he was right. "I can get you some cereal and orange juice right now, if you're hungry."

"And so it begins!" I announced theatrically, my arms thrown out to add to my dramatics. "I'd love some..." My voice was softer now, kinder. I know he was just trying to help me out. "But skip the orange juice. I just brushed my teeth. See?" I mentioned before smiling as widely as I could. He chuckled lightly at me before making his way into the hallway.

Yup, and so it begins.

The rest of the morning was spent with us sitting comfortably with each other. We talked for a bit, but mostly about the van and who I thought it might had belonged to. In all honesty, I had no clue. As far as I knew, none of the vampires last night had a license, let alone a car.

Around noon, we got a call from Willow. Apparently, the van belonged to Mr. Walker. So it was taken by the twins. Damn, that's gonna lead us nowhere onto who the leader was. But Willow got the address to the Walker's and the group was going to ask the family questions about the twins, hoping they can find out who they might have been seen talking to or hanging out with that might have seemed suspicious.

A few hours more into talking, hanging out, and reading separate books, I noticed that Angel was starting to drift off in his chair. I smirked to myself at how peaceful he seemed, his eyes closed as he rested.

He woke up a a couple of hours later, instantly realizing he had fallen asleep. "Sorry..." he said meekly as he sat back up.

"For what? _I_ should be the one apologizing to _you_—I didn't realize I was that boring..." I teased as he rubbed at his eyes. He smiled softly as he did so and then opened them back up to glance over at the clock.

"They should be back soon." The sun was starting to set now, the blinds turning a bleak orange from the light outside. I wonder if they were taking Mr. Walker to his van so that he could take it back or if they would just leave that to the police to figure out.

The front door opened from the other side of the house, multiple sets of footsteps walking inside. "Ah, speaking of the demon spawn..." And in walked Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles. Okay, it was a bit weird to have Giles in here, but it wasn't bad weird—just different.

"How are all of your injuries, Eric?" He was the first to speak up. I found it odd it wasn't Xander, but it probably had something to do with his dislike for a certain smoldering hero.

"Great! Got me a brand new ankle and some pep in my step." I said cheerfully, genuinely happy to see them all again. It felt like ages since all five of us were in the same room.

"Anything useful from the family?" Angel asked the four of them, but mostly directed toward Buffy. These two just need to kiss and get it over with. Maybe then I can forget about any knight-in-shining-armor complex I might have for him.

"Not really, but get this; we took Mr. Walker to get his car," Called it. "and it was gone."

"Somebody knew exactly where to find it..." I muttered, only aware that I had said it aloud when everybody glanced at me.

"My money's on whoever these guys' boss is." Xander interjected as he took a seat on the side of my bed; the opposite side of where Angel is, of course. "Or, I guess was..."

"Maybe it was an upperclassman or older sibling...?" Willow threw out, sounding unsure of her own idea.

"It could be, but it's too early to assume much of anything. We're running on empty right now." Buffy's voice seemed slightly defeated, but that's to be expected because she's right. Until they do something to get our attention or the cops find the van, we were at a stalemate.

"A deadlock." Okay, my telepath theory for Angel is definitely still in play...

"But in the mean time, we brought rental movies to ruin your vision and junk food to rot you from the inside out." Xander told me as he looked around the room for something in particular. "...but you don't seem to have a TV in here. What the hell kind of teenager are you?"

"That's okay. We can just move him out to the front. I think I saw a TV out there. VCR, too?" I nodded at Buffy's question before Giles put his two cents in.

"Now, you shouldn't be moving him around more than necessary. He still has to recover from his injuries."

"Way to poop the party, Giles." Willow replied, feigning dejection but amusement still clear in her eyes.

"Anyway, I need to make dinner for my mom before she gets back from work. She works up her appetite to construction worker level; it's scary."

"Oh, we can take care of that." Willow offered as she looked over to both Buffy and Xander.

"Yeah, it'll be easy. I can thaw a chicken like nobody's business!" Xander joked from beside me, looking at me bemusedly.

"It'll be like an expedition. You don't have to worry." Buffy let me know. I thanked the three of them for their help. It was as much appreciated as it was unnecessary.

"I should get going." Angel announced, followed by Giles. I thanked Angel profusely for all of the help before he just smiled at me and left.

"Now, Buffy, promise me you will not move Eric and that he will stay here."

"Don't worry, Giles. We can have our own fun in here. I think I have some pipe bombs and gasoline in my closet somewhere." To that, he sighed heavily at the four of us before he, too, made his way out of my house.

The four of us felt foolish grins slowly make their way onto our faces once they had left.

** Y**

"Xander, that's not salt!" Willow cried out before he had ended up putting sugar into the frying pan filled with chicken cutlets.

"I know that...We're not making candied chicken?"

"Xander..." Willow replied before using the _proper_ seasoning for the dish.

I sat from my spot at the kitchen table, my leg elevated onto another chair. I leaned back as I ate out of the large bag of Doritos sitting beside me, bopping around to Latin music playing from the radio in the hall.

Buffy was chopping onions and she added them to the pan. She got the bottle of cooking wine from the counter and started pouring it in. "How much am I supposed to add again?" And with that, flames rose up from the pan. Willow squealed in surprise and Xander jumped back, knocking over the sugar he had set down earlier. I ended up spitting out my chips from my mouth, shouting to put it out. Willow then proceeded to race to the sink and drowned the chicken in cold water as it flowed from the spout.

We looked at each other in bewilderment before we all broke out into fits of uncontrollable laughter.

** Y**

**I know that this chapter was shorter than the others, but I wanted to let you guys know that I'm still alive.**

**By the way, if the methods I used for Eric's injuries were pretty much just me guessing. Sorry if they weren't legit or anything haha**

**Anyway, have a great day, lovelies. Remember that reviews make my heart go pitter patter, so keep them up! Until next time!**


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